Welcome to the Jungle
by Ty3
Summary: Sequel to Welcome to Paradise. Ty is back and she's still stirring up trouble for the Winchesters and for herself. Problem is, has she gotten herself in too deep? Rating upped to M for language and sexuality just to be safe.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: Okay, so I couldn't stop myself. I started writing a sequel to Welcome to Paradise. What can I say? I'm a glutton for punishment, I guess. Anyway, these first few chapters may be a little slow. I really want to reintroduce Ty and explain where she's at now. Any suggestions are welcome on how to improve the fic. As always, I own squat. Supernatural belongs to the CW, "Welcome to the Jungle" is a Guns 'N Roses song and the lyrics in this first chapter are from "Head Like A Hole" by Nine Inch Nails. However, on the upside I own Ty, this fic, and my own very dirty, very in-need-of-much-rebuilding 1967 Impala. So, without further ado, here's chapter one.

Welcome To The Jungle

Chapter One: I'd Rather Die

_head like a hole.  
black as your soul.  
i'd rather die than give you control.  
head like a hole.  
black as your soul.  
i'd rather die than give you control.  
__bow down before the one you serve.  
you're going to get what you deserve.  
bow down before the one you serve.  
you're going to get what you deserve._

Ty flung herself to the ground, rolling across the dirt until she was in the relative safety of the shadow of a boulder. She peaked up over the rock at her adversary, but hastily pulled her head back down when her eyes found the barrel of a gun trained on her location. A bullet ricocheted off the rock a second after she ducked.

"Son a bitch!" Ty exclaimed.

When Ty had taken this job, she'd figured it would be an easy salt and burn. Who could have known that the ghost of a cowboy would have a gun that fired very real bullets? What the hell was up with that?

Of course, everything had been going just fine until Ty'd lost track of how many shots she had fired and found herself firing at the ghost with an empty clip. Hence that stop-drop-and roll. Ty flipped over so her back was against the rock and ejected the empty clip from her gun. Luckily she had extra rounds with her just in case. Foresight wasn't really Ty's thing these days so it was something of a minor miracle that she'd filled her pocket with spare iron rounds. Ty wrapped her fingers around a handful and began shoving them in the clip rapidly. She was sure Doc Holiday out there wasn't going to let her have too much of a breather.

Admittedly, this probably wasn't the best job for Ty to take on solo. The cowboy had a thing for girls. Well, uppity girls, anyway, of which Ty most assuredly was one. Apparently his chauvinism hadn't died with him and the angry spirit had taken to murdering girls who didn't "know their place." To top it off, no one really knew who the cowboy was. There were a lot of rumors as to his identity, but nothing certain. Still, Ty had figured that she'd be able to nail it down, dig up a grave and be done with it. She hadn't figured that her just showing up with a gun strapped to her hip, sporting her usual badass, tomboy attitude would piss this poltergeist off to no end. Apparently, Ty was the embodiment of everything a women should not be in this ghost's opinion. So, he'd taken it upon himself to teach her a lesson, one Ty wasn't particularly keen on learning.

"Done makin' a fuss, you brazen lil' slut?" the cowboy drawled, punctuating his question by spitting on the ground as if to emphasize his opinion of her.

He sounded closer than he'd been last Ty time had looked. Ty gave up on filling the clip and hoped that she wouldn't need more than five bullets. She jammed the clip back in the gun and cocked it, waiting.

"In your dreams." Ty snapped back, "When are you going to figure out your not near man enough to beat me?"

"Big words for a lil' girl hidin' behind a rock." the cowboy growled, "If you were a man I'd really kick the shit out o' you."

Ty smiled and snarked back, stealing a line from some TV show with Glenn Close she'd seen previews for earlier that week, "If you were a man, I'd be scared."

The cowboy snarled loudly in response. He sounded really close now. Ty couldn't wait any longer. She rolled out of her hiding place, coming up on one knee and taking aim at the same time. The cowboy was quick, whirling towards her, his gun whipping around to take aim on her. But before he could bring his arm all the way around, Ty was squeezing the trigger. The bullet exploded from her gun and hit dead on, smack in the chest. The cowboy staggered back and disappeared.

Ty let go of the breath she'd been holding and slowly climbed back to her feet. He'd be back soon. Maybe, just maybe she should rethink this before taking him on again. Ty sighed and rolled her eyes as she jammed her gun back into its holster. Regrouping and coming up with a plan was such a drag. It was much more fun to just go in there guns blazing and wing it, making things up as she went along. Ever since she'd gone on that hunt with the boys and cheated death, she found that she just didn't have it in her to worry about the consequences anymore. She'd done that. She'd felt herself paralyzed with fear. Hell, she'd even died. She'd faced it all and come out the other side of it. She'd faced down the freaking yellow-eyed demon for Pete's sake! How could some stupid spectral cowboy possibly scare her now?

Ty dragged her feet a little as she trudged out of the desert and back towards the highway where she'd left her car. She knew that she seemed reckless. Okay, so she was being reckless, but so far it had worked out perfectly fine for her. So maybe she'd earned a few war wounds, but hell, scars were cool. They were badges of honor, really. And so maybe she should have asked for help, especially on this last one, just punched one of those buttons in her phone that would connect her with Sam or Dean Winchester, but it was so damn hard to actually do it. She still remembered perfectly Dean's lectures on how she didn't know what she was doing, how it was too dangerous for her, and the last thing she wanted to do was prove him right in any way. Maybe she was being a little irrational about that because Dean hadn't voiced any of those sentiments following the completion of their hunt, but that didn't mean that those words were erased. They still existed in her memory, echoing back to her whenever she contemplated calling them. And yet, she might just have to swallow her pride and just call them on this one.

"What? And prove Wyatt Earp right? Prove that you need a man to take him down? Forget that!" Ty argued with herself, her hands curling into fists at her sides.

She just needed to think about this a little more, outsmart him. Guns blazing might not be the way to go this time. That didn't mean she couldn't handle it. It just meant that she needed to take a different approach. Nodding to herself, Ty picked up the pace the remaining distance to her car, ready to get the hell out of here for the night and resolved to do this on her own.

There was no way for Ty to know that hundreds of miles away, the decision was being taken out of her hands. Hundreds of miles from where Ty was antagonizing a homicidal undead cowboy, Dean and Sam were walking into the Roadhouse where Ellen was waiting for them. Rumors of a reckless blonde female hunter had made there way back to her through the network of hunters that came through her bar and Ellen knew that there was a chance that it was her girl they were talking about going off half-cocked against the forces of evil. Ellen had debated taking off for the Southwest and finding this girl herself. Then, if it turned out to be Jo doing these things, she could drag her home by the hair. She'd thought long and hard about it and finally decided that forcing Jo to give up hunting just wouldn't work. She'd already had that argument with her daughter and it had ended with Jo storming out and never coming back. Jo just had too much of her father in her. Trying to force her to do she didn't want to do would just result in a greater rift between them. So, Ellen had called Sam and Dean in the hopes that they might be able to succeed in bringing her girl home where she would not. Besides, those boys owed her a favor.

"Sam, Dean. I'm glad you're here." Ellen greeted the boys as they walked up to the bar.

"Ellen." Dean nodded, sliding onto a bar stool and accepting the beer Ellen placed on the bar in front of him.

Sam smiled his thanks also, but didn't touch his drink. Instead, he cut right to the chase, "You said you needed a favor?"

Ellen nodded, glad that they weren't going to waste any time, "There's been some talk about a blonde girl hunting things. They say she's throwing herself in harms way, going in guns blazing, and she's going to get herself killed."

"You think it's Jo?" Dean asked, setting his beer down, frowning.

"Well, I don't know. I haven't heard from her in weeks."

"Where?" Dean asked.

"Last I heard was Arizona." Ellen said.

Dean and Sam exchanged a look.

"What?" Ellen demanded, "What is it?"

"It might not be Jo." Sam said, turning back towards Ellen, "We...uh...crossed paths with a blonde hunter in Arizona a few months back. Her name's Ty."

Relief flashed across Ellen's face momentarily. It might be selfish, but the possibility that it wasn't her girl these guys were talking about and practically making bets on when she'd get wasted made it easier for her to breathe.

"Jo or not, someone's got to set this girl straight." Ellen finally said, setting both hands down flat on the bar and leaning forward for emphasis.

Dean took a last swig of his beer, slamming the bottle back down on the counter with finality, "Don't worry. We're on it."

With that, Dean stood and headed for the door. Sam nodded goodbye to Ellen as he hurriedly followed after. Dean hadn't really said or done anything to make Sam worried, but Sam knew that if this was Ty they were going after, Dean would be really upset. You wouldn't have known it from the no-nonsense way they had said goodbye months ago, but Sam knew that his brother had some pretty strong feelings for the rookie hunter. Dean had gone through a lot to save Ty's life, Sam could only imagine how his brother must feel if she was being so careless with it now.

"Hey, Dean! Wait!" Sam called, grabbing his brother's arm to stop him.

"Get off me, Sam." Dean snapped, shaking off Sam's hand and reaching for the Impala's door handle.

"Come on, Dean. If this is Ty..." Sam tried again.

"Sam!" Dean interrupted angrily, "We're not talking about this. Ty or Jo, I don't really give a shit. Let's just go."

Sam blinked in surprise at Dean's anger, not really expecting such a furious response. Dean took that moment of stunned silence to climb into the car and slam the door. Sam shook his head, knowing that Dean didn't really mean that, but also knowing that after that outburst it would be pointless to try and get anything out of Dean now. With a sigh, Sam moved around the car to get in the passenger side, mentally preparing for yet another pleasant ride with his older brother.

Meanwhile, the girl in question herself had just pulled off the road, turning off the engine and moving away from her car towards a road marker along the edge of the Carefree Highway. Ty didn't know why she kept coming here. Something about the spot just felt meaningful and time and again she found herself making the drive out here to the middle of nowhere just to sit under mile marker 27 and think. Reaching the sign, Ty reached out and ran a hand across it, staring at the bold white numbers on the green backing in the light of her flashlight. Ty's mind wandered back to that night with Sam and Dean, the course of events that one hunt had set in motion, eventually leading her to the present day. In retrospect, it didn't make sense. At the time she had been so sure that it had been fate; that it was all supposed to happen. Now it all looked like crazy happenstance. Why had Dean singled her out at that bar and why had she gone with him? What made Sam decide to argue for her against his brother? Why had Angela Hamilton possessed her when the summoning spell had been intended for Dean? So many questions that inevitably bubbled to the surface of Ty's thoughts when she came here and ultimately remained unanswered when she left. Ty liked to think that coming to this spot outside the city gave her a fresh perspective, but if she was honest with herself she still felt clueless when it came right down to it. Ty sighed heavily and retreated from the sign, backtracking to her car and settling down on the hood. She pulled her feet up to rest on the front bumper and draped her arms across her knees, her flashlight drooping to point at the ground and the darkness immediately swooping in to envelop the mile marker sign. Nights like this, when she found herself out here, she sometimes felt a little like that girl who'd wondered around the cemetery at night, looking for something out of the ordinary to latch onto. And yet she could never be that girl again, that naive, innocent girl who tentatively sought out evil while still feeling inwardly terrified of paying the price of finding it. Ty really couldn't explain it, but she sort of felt like something had snapped inside of her when that demon had let her burn on the ceiling. It was sort of like a revelation. After all the fear and worry she'd gone through, desperately trying to avoid letting Sam's vision become a reality, it had all happened anyway. It had been inevitable. So, if her actions ultimately didn't make a difference in her life and death, why not go out there and kick as much ass as possible in the time she still had?

With that in mind, Ty turned her attention back to the undead cowboy. How was she going to play this now that her Annie Oakley routine had blown up in her face? Ty had a few running theories on the cowboy's identity. Maybe she could get the drop on him and trick him into revealing which of the graves in the nearby cemetery was his if she surprised him. A new plan involving a disguise and a shovel began to formulate in Ty's mind. It wasn't a good plan, not by a long stretch, but it would do. Satisfied that she had a new course of action in mind for tomorrow night, Ty hopped down off her car's hood and moved back around to the driver's side door. Before opening the door and getting in, Ty pointed her flashlight at the mile marker sign one final time, staring at it for one last moment before she quickly got in and headed home. It was getting late and Ty could use a little sleep tonight.

Quality sleep had become something of a rarity for Ty lately. When she wasn't out hunting, she seemed to be tossing and turning all night, her troubled mind refusing to let her relax. It was a good thing that Ty had moved out of her parents' house and into an apartment, thus facilitating her staying out all night, trudging in around daybreak to catch a few restless hours of recuperative sleep before heading off to school and then work. It was almost like hunting had become an addiction and she needed it more than she needed rest. If she wasn't facing down the ghost of a cowboy, her mind was consumed with what else she could track down.

Ty punched up the volume on the radio, the load pulsing of the rock music pounding through her car. With the window down and the wind whipping through her hair (her A/C didn't work, so it was either that or die from the heat of the Arizona desert), Ty sped down the road towards her apartment complex. Ty couldn't care less at the moment that she was doing a good twenty-five miles over the speed limit. Ty had never cared much for cops, unable to muster any respect for their authority. Couple that with the way an unsuccessful night of hunting made her feel and Ty was pretty much looking for a fight. However, she barely saw another car on the road the whole way home and ended up pulling into her designated parking spot without any disturbances.

At this time of night, the fitness center in the complex was officially closed, however by now Ty had managed to sweet talk the right people and now knew where they left a spare key. Ty snatched the key from its hiding place, slipped inside and locked the door behind her. It was dark inside the room, but the emergency lights provided enough light for her to see by and Ty didn't want to attract the attention that turning on the rest of the lights would bring her. So without any further delay, Ty powered on one of the treadmills and turned the speed up high enough to make her sweat. She let her frustration pound out on the rapidly moving black tread with each drop of her shoe. She shut down her thoughts as much as possible, focusing on her breathing. A few times Ty found her mind wandering and had to increase her speed, but eventually she found herself pleasantly exhausted, ready to hit the showers and then her bed. Slipping back outside and locking up after her, Ty replaced the key where she'd found it and headed home. Ty's cats greeted her as she walked in, following her around the apartment until she shut herself in the bathroom to take a cool shower. Ty couldn't help but wonder what the boys were up to. They probably had a hunt of their own somewhere or maybe they were still trying to catch up with their dad and convince him that ditching them was really not the best of ideas. Despite her unwillingness to ask them for help, Ty missed them. And, for all his pigheadedness, she missed Dean especially. Ty sighed and shut the water off. She'd thought about this many times in the past few months. She just couldn't find a way to call Dean without making it seem like a) she needed his help with hunting because she was somehow not up to the task herself or b) she was a needy, desperate girl who needed a boyfriend to feel complete, something that was not only completely untrue, but that would certainly scare him off anyway. If only he would just call her...

Ty donned her pajamas and settled into bed, shutting off the light and punching her pillows until they were just how she liked them. With another sigh, Ty settled in and pulled the sheets up over her shoulders, letting her eyes slide shut. She was just falling into blissful slumber when Blue Oyster Cult shattered the quiet in her bedroom. Ty's eyes flew open and with a groan she groped for her phone on the nightstand.

"Who the hell is this?" she grumbled into the receiver without bothering to look at the caller ID. No one she knew could possibly be stupid enough to call her at this time of night.

"Well, I missed you, too. What's the matter? Did I wake you up, princess?"

Ty bolted upright, throwing back her covers. Her eyes were wide and her voice clearly communicated her shock at hearing Dean's humor-filled and yet slightly strained voice in her ear. Was it her imagination or did he sound kind of pissed off under that coating of smart ass?

"Dean?" Ty asked in surprise.

"Yeah." Dean confirmed, impatiently, "Hey, where are you?"

"Uh...Phoenix, why?" Ty asked, confused.

Why would Dean call her up in the middle of the night like this, wanting to know where she was? After not speaking at all for months, it just didn't make sense.

"Same address?" Dean asked, ignoring her question.

"No, I moved. Dean, what's going on?" Ty persisted, slightly annoyed that he had refused to answer her question the first time.

"We'll talk when we get there. What's the address?" Dean pressed, no longer hiding the fact that he was upset as his tone became markedly brusque and his words clipped.

Ty gave him the address, still confused. Why was Dean coming here, sounding like he was ready to break someone's nose? Ty was just about to ask him about it for a third time when she found herself faced with an abruptly ended call. He'd hung up on her!

"Ass." Ty growled at the phone, tossing it carelessly in the direction of the nightstand. Ty continued to grumble as she settled back into bed, "Wakes me up in the middle of the freaking night, sounds like he's ready to bite my head off for no reason, won't even tell me why he's calling out of the blue, and then doesn't even say bye. Better have a damn good reason for being such a dick."

Ty closed her eyes and tried to sleep, but found that what was once so near had vanished in the face of Dean and his annoying phone call. The knowledge that she would wake up and, no doubt, find Dean in her living room made it hard for her to sleep. Especially given the fact that she was already planning on knocking upside the head for being such a jerk. And why the heck was he coming out here anyway? Ty's mind refused to shut down and began to make a list of possible reasons why Dean Winchester would call her. Well, given his tone she supposed she could scratch booty call off the list.

Ty growled and punched her pillow in aggravation. So much for sleeping. Ty got up and trudged wearily back to her living room. She plopped down on the couch and flipped on the television, but her mind was hardly focused on the all-night marathon of Dr. Who on the Sci-fi Channel.

'_Nope_,' Ty thought with a wry twist of her lips, '_If the Winchesters are coming, I'll be waiting for them when they get here_.'


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Thanks to everyone who reviewed Chapter 1. As promised, here is Chapter 2, where the Winchesters make their appearance. This song is an awesome song by Poe. If you've never heard it, I encourage you to download it. It rocks.

Chapter Two: Through My World

_well it's 3 am i'm out here ridin again  
through the wicked, winding streets of my world  
i make a wrong turn, break it  
now i'm too far gone  
i got a siren on my tail  
and that ain't the fine i'm lookin for  
i see a stairway so i follow it down  
into the belly of a whale where my secrets echo all around  
you know me now but to do better than that  
you got to follow me  
boy i'm tryin to show you where i'm at  
hey pretty don't you wanna take a ride with me  
through my world  
hey pretty don't you wanna kick and slide  
through my world  
well i got a mind full of wicked designs  
i got a non-stop hole in my head imagination  
i'm in a building that has 2000 floors  
and when they all fall down  
i think you know it's you they're fallin for  
i can't forget i am a sole architect  
i built the shadows here  
i built the growlin voice i fear  
you add it up but to do better than that  
you got to follow me  
boy i'm tryin to show you where i'm at  
hey pretty don't you wanna take a ride with me  
through my world  
hey pretty don't you wanna kick and slide  
through my world  
hey pretty, my pretty baby  
rock it through my world  
hey pretty, my pretty baby  
rock it through my world_

Despite Ty's earlier conviction, she'd had a long day and eventually ended up passing out on her couch. She was fast asleep when Dean Winchester picked the lock on her door and silently let himself and his brother into the dim apartment. The boys immediately scanned the room. Sam pointed out the salt lines on the windowsills and by the door. Dean said nothing but moved towards the TV which was still on. As he drew closer, his eyes alighted upon Ty, curled up against the arm of the sofa. His eyes softened for only a second as he took in her face and visually traced the line of her jaw before hardening and filling rapidly with fury. His hands curled into fists and he had to take a deep breath to calm himself before he grabbed her by the collar and shook her awake. Instead, Dean cleared his throat loudly, scowling as Ty startled awake and ignoring Sam's disapproving looks.

"Holy shit, Dean." Ty grumbled as she realized who was standing over her, "Must you loom?"

A muscle in Dean's jaw twitched. Ty noticed it even in her sleepy state, but hardly cared. If Dean was going to be an asshole for no reason, Ty had no problem pushing him. Then at least he'd have a reason for being mad at her.

Ty stretched leisurely, acting completely unconcerned with Dean's presence.

"Hey, Sam." she greeted, tilting her head back to see the younger Winchester still standing near the door.

"Hey, Ty." Sam returned cautiously, watching his brother carefully in case Dean lost it and he needed to step in.

Ty stood, turning her back on Dean and moving past Sam to her fridge. Opening the door and poking her head in to check out her options, Ty asked, "What brings you boys here?"

Ty jumped and gasped in surprise when she was yanked back and the fridge door was slammed in her face. She hadn't even heard Dean move, but suddenly he was there with his hand grasping her forearm in a bruising grip.

"Cut the crap." Dean growled, "What the hell is wrong with you?"

"What're you talking about?" Ty demanded, trying in vain to free herself from Dean's hold.

Dean ignored her question and her attempts to free herself. Using her arm as leverage, Dean shoved Ty back into the kitchen wall, "Did you like burning to death? Or are you just that damn stupid?"

Ty still wasn't completely sure what the heck Dean was yelling about, although she now had a pretty good idea. Still, she wasn't too thrilled about his man-handling her, whatever his reasons.

"Let go of me." Ty ordered, her voice as much of a growl as Dean's, her eyes burning with just as much anger.

"Dean..." Sam began, approaching slowly, holding his hands up as if to calm his brother.

"Take a walk, Sam." Dean snapped, gaze not wavering for a second from Ty.

"Dean, maybe you should calm..." Sam tried again.

"Sam!" Dean interrupted, furious eyes finding his brother's and demanding compliance.

Sam had seen that particular kind of fire in Dean's hazel eyes before, but it was usually reserved for the things they hunted, especially ones that dared hurt the people Dean cared about. Sam hesitated to leave Ty alone with Dean when his brother was looking at her that way, but eventually decided that knowing these two they would have some kind of explosive argument sooner or later. They might as well get it over with now. So, with a shrug that said he couldn't be held responsible, Sam backed off.

Dean's eyes followed him out the door, returning resolutely to Ty as Sam shut the door behind him. Ty met his gaze defiantly, unwilling to yield even though that look on Dean's face was pretty intimidating. Ty mentally shrugged it off. She looked down the barrel of a murderous spectral cowboy's gun mere hours earlier. She could handle a pissed-off Winchester.

"Where do you get off...?" she began to demand.

"No, where do you get off acting like some suicidal idiot?" Dean yelled, "After everything...I hear you're out here throwing yourself in harm's way like you don't even care! What the hell are you thinking? How many times do you think you can cheat death, huh? Or do you think this is some kind of game?"

Ty blinked slowly in the face of Dean's tirade. Rationally, she knew that she had this coming. Dean of all people knew exactly what kind of risks she was taking and how it easy it was to make a fatal error. And yet having Dean screaming at her like that only served to unleash her own anger, causing her to scream things back at him that she really had never planned on revealing.

"Like you even care! You already saved the day and got the girl, now it's on to the next job, the next girl!"

"What the..._I_ don't care? You think I don't care?" Dean was shaking he was so mad and Ty wondered absently if he might hit her when he raised his fist. She froze and closed her eyes, half-expecting a blow, but none came. When Ty opened her eyes again, she found Dean's fist buried in the plaster of the wall next to her. In the back of her mind, Ty kissed her security deposit goodbye. The rest of Ty's focus was completely on Dean as she stared at him with some kind of strange fascination. There was something extremely heady in the knowledge that she instigated that degree of passion in the man.

The next thing Ty knew she was kissing him. Dean immediately kissed her back, extricating his hand from the wall and fisting it in her hair. The kisses were searing, as fiery as their argument.

"God, I've missed our fights." Dean quipped against her lips as she gasped for air.

"Shut up." Ty replied, pressing her mouth back against his.

Ty was just beginning to pull Dean by the shirt towards her room when a knock sounded on the door.

"Neither of you are dead, right?" Sam called through the door.

"That was a pretty short freaking walk!" Dean yelled back in agitation.

Ty could practically see Sam rolling his eyes through the door and it made her smile.

"Well, I figured it wouldn't take long before you moved on to the making out stage of your arguing." Sam replied.

Dean glanced at Ty in surprise, "His knowledge of our relationship is freaky."

Ty nodded mutely. She reluctantly pulled away from Dean and headed over to the door to let Sam back in. Sam took in her flushed appearance, his brother, and the new whole in the wall with a raised eyebrow, but wisely chose not to say anything.

"So..." Ty began hesitantly, wading carefully back into this dangerous territory, "you guys came all the way out here because someone said I was being reckless?"

Ty glanced at Dean, but kept her focus on Sam, knowing she could count on him for a straight answer.

"A friend asked us to check it out. She thought it might be someone she knew, but once she told us where it was, we figured it had to be you." Sam explained.

Ty nodded slowly, taking in this information. Apparently, she wasn't only being a little reckless, she was being careless enough that other hunters were talking.

"Didn't know I was that popular." Ty commented dryly with the hint of a grin.

"They were taking freaking bets on when you'd get wasted!" Dean snarled from behind her.

Ty raised an eyebrow as she glanced over her shoulder at him again, "What're my odds?"

Dean took a heavy step towards her, his eyes flashing with fury once again, but Ty stopped him with a look. Turning to face him more directly, Ty crossed her arms across her chest and adjusted her stance so that she was clearly communicating with her body language that she wasn't about to be pushed around anymore.

"Don't lecture me, Dean." Ty said evenly.

"I'll stop when you stop needing me to." Dean replied stubbornly.

"Explain to me then why it takes throwing myself in front of a few homicidal ghosts to get your attention." Ty challenged.

Damn, she really needed to get one of those filter things that allowed you to think about things before they came galloping out of your mouth. Ty watched Dean for his reaction with something akin to horror on her own face. Between that statement and her earlier comment about him moving on to another girl, it was pretty damn obvious how she felt about him still.

'_So much for playing it cool_.' Ty thought ruefully.

Dean glanced at Sam once as if uncomfortable with having his brother privy to this discussion, but then stepped closer to her, lowering his voice as he answered, "You could have called."

Ty glanced up at him, "No, Dean. I couldn't have. And apparently, neither could you until now."

Dean sighed and ran a hand through his hair, "Do we have to talk about this now?"

Ty shook her head and moved away from him, just as glad to avoid this topic as he was, "Nope. We don't. You boys can go now. I promise I'll be more careful. Mission accomplished."

Ty ignored the hurt look she thought she saw on Dean's face at her callous dismissal. She probably just imagined it anyway. But Sam wasn't about to let her off the hook that easy. Classic Winchester double-teaming.

"Wait a minute." he protested, "Are you hunting something now?"

Ty heaved a sigh and ran her fingers through her long hair, only realizing as she pulled her hand free that she had just copied Dean's earlier behavior. Wincing at that knowledge, she abruptly dropped her hand back to her side before answering, "Yeah, I might be working on something."

"What?" Dean demanded.

"Just a cowboy ghost. No big deal." Ty replied with a dismissive wave of her hand.

"Yeah?" Dean challenged, not fooled by her act at all, "You've got a name and a grave-site then?"

Ty frowned, annoyed that she'd been found out so easily, "No, not exactly."

"Did you try the local obits and track the pattern of the victims?" Sam asked.

"Of course, Sam. I'm not an idiot." Ty snapped, transferring her glare immediately to Dean as he raised his eyebrows in response to her comment.

'_One word and I swear I'm gonna throw the lamp at his head_.' Ty thought viciously, her fingers itching to reach out and grab the lamp on the nearby end table.

Lucky for Dean, Sam distracted her, his interest clearly piqued by the case, "So what do you have to go on? Any suspects so far? When was the last victim?"

"Woah, hold up there, sparky. One question at a time." Ty interrupted him before he could ask anything else. An amused smile tugged at her lips and she felt herself relax a little, "I've got everything I know on my laptop if you want to take a look."

"Sure." Sam nodded quickly.

It occurred to Ty as she turned from them to retrieve her laptop that she probably shouldn't be sharing her information with them. Now they would probably want to get involved, something she had just decided the night before that she didn't want. However, she had to admit, she could probably use Sam's insight on this one. Hell, maybe Dean might even have an idea of where to go from her current impasse. So with measured reluctance, Ty reentered the room and handed over her computer to Sam.

Sam wasted no time powering the computer on, holding it precariously in one hand so as to hit the power button with the other.

"Hey, careful with Cody." Ty cautioned, reaching out to steady her computer with both her hands.

Sam raised an eyebrow at her over the computer screen, "Cody? Your computer has a name?"

"Yeah." Ty answered as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Okay." Sam drawled, shrugging one shoulder and taking the computer in both hands. He dropped onto the spot Ty had vacated on the couch and placed the laptop on his knees. The programs quickly loaded and Ty winced as Sam took in the Spider-Man background. She leaned quickly over the back of the couch to point out the file where she'd saved the information on this hunt.

"It's that one, the one labeled 'Ty Stuff.' This hunt is the 'Wyatt Freaking Earp' document." Ty said.

"Nice." Dean threw in.

Ty turned towards Dean, placed her hands on her hips and stuck out her tongue.

"Classy." Dean added with the hint of a smirk.

"You wouldn't know class if it kicked you in the junk." Ty retorted.

"Ouch. Harsh." Dean said, hand going to his chest over his heart as if he were physically wounded.

"But true." Sam asserted, "Ty is there anything concrete on this guy at all?"

"Not really. I didn't even really buy the story until the sucker tried to put a bullet between my eyes." Ty admitted.

Sam glanced back over his shoulder at his brother, "This is about as washy as that job in Richardson with Mordecai."

"You think it's another tulpa?" Dean asked, genuinely surprised.

Sam shook his head, "I can't be sure. There's no house it's focusing on, just a general area, so I don't know. How'd you hear about this, Ty?"

"Caught wind of a couple hikers who turned up dead, shot to death by what forensics says looks like bullets from an old-fashioned six-shooter. Locals starting talk about how it was this urban legend rearing its ugly head again. That was ten days ago." Ty reported, coming to sit on the arm of the couch near Sam.

"Looks like you nailed the pattern, too." Sam said, continuing to peruse Ty's research, "Strong, independent young women, mostly blondes."

"How many?" Dean asked, wandering closer to look over Sam's shoulder.

"These last two make twenty-seven over the last century." Sam answered.

"These last two girls are also the first in over fifty years. He's apparently been dormant or something until now." Ty added with a shrug.

"But no one has any idea who he is? Not even any of the old-timers who might still remember the last victims?" Dean pressed.

"Don't know. I decided to check out the murder scene last night and see if I could find our favorite gun-slinger. Found out the son of a bitch's still hanging around, all right and apparently he's not too fond of me."

"What happened?" Dean and Sam both asked at the same time.

Ty rolled her eyes at the two boys, "Nothing. I just headed out there to look around, he turned up, didn't seem to like the looks of me and started shooting. I blasted him with an iron round and decided to back off for the night. I came home and got a call from you, growling at me through the phone."

"Apparently not soon enough to keep you from walking right into a showdown at the OK Corral." Dean scoffed.

"Like you're one to talk." Ty replied, "Don't act like you're not just as much of a shoot first, ask questions later person. Sam and I've talked."

Dean glared at Sam for a second before countering, "But I'm good at it."

Ty took a deep breath to keep from launching into another argument. Why did Dean Winchester make her feel like she needed an hour of yoga or a punching bag to keep from self-destructing?

Ty pushed Sam a little to get him to move over, then slipped off the arm of the couch onto the cushion next to him, purposefully ignoring Dean, "Well, Sam, what do you think?"

"In most cases like this, where a spirit shows up again after a long time, somebody's messed with something. Maybe there's been some recent construction at the gravesite. Let's go check out the area before nightfall and maybe we'll at least be able to narrow down where this guy's buried." Sam suggested.

"Good idea." Ty nodded, "And if that doesn't work, you guys back off and let me do things my way."

"Seeing as how 'your way' is what brought us out here in the first place, I think maybe you should take a backseat on this one." Dean advised.

"Well, I think that you can shove your opinion up your..." Ty began in a faux sweet tone.

"Hey!" Sam interrupted quickly, "Why don't we just agree to work this job together? Ty, if you've got a plan..."

"Of course I have a plan." Ty affirmed, injecting a note of affront in her voice at the suggestion that she might not.

"...then we'll do that." Sam asserted diplomatically.

Dean threw his hands up in the air and walked away from them, distancing himself from the situation. Ty nodded resolutely in agreement with Sam, all the while thinking, '_Shit, now I really need a plan._'


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Alrighty, chapter 3 with lyrics from Rob Zombie's Living Dead Girl. Music's a little darker and Ty's a little darker. I hope that the changes in her are becoming more apparent to you guys. Hopefully between this and the next chapter, it will become pretty clear what's going on with her. Then, the crap can really hit the fan. Please review.

Chapter Three: Living Dead Girl

_(Who is this irresistible creature who has an insatiable love for the dead?)  
Living Dead Girl!_

Rage in the cage  
And piss upon the stage  
There's only one sure way  
To bring the giant down  
Defunct the strings  
Of cemetery things  
With one flat foot  
On the devil's wing  
Crawl on me  
Sink into me  
Die for me  
Living Dead Girl  
Raping the geek  
And hustling the freak  
Like a hunchback juice  
On a sentimental noose  
Operation filth  
They love to love the wealth  
Of an SS Whore  
Making scary sounds  
Crawl on me  
Sink into me  
Die for me  
Living Dead Girl  
Psyclone Jack  
Hallucinating Hack  
Thinks Donna Reed  
Eats dollar bills  
Goldfoot machine  
Creates another fiend  
So Beautiful,  
They make you kill  
Crawl on me  
Sink into me  
Die for me  
Living Dead Girl  
Blood on her skin  
Dripping with Sin  
Do it again  
Living Dead Girl

Ty pulled her hair over one shoulder and wrapped it around her fist, wondering if it was long enough to strangle herself with. Anything would be better than this endless boredom. Seriously, if she had to listen to one more senior citizen spouting off for hours about the "good, old days," she was liable to hurt someone.

"...so I told Wendy that Howard would never take Betty to the dance." their current interviewee informed them with a wistful smile.

Ty pulled her hair across her throat and pulled. Sam nudged her in the ribs, causing her to almost jump in surprise and release her hair. Dean snickered softly, causing Ty's head to snap around towards him with a glare, mouthing a dirty word at him.

"That's wonderful, Harriet, but we want to know about Beth Ann." Sam urged with a soft smile and his wide, brown eyes.

"Oh, Beth Ann." Harriet said, a sad smile gracing her features, "Looked a lot like you do, young lady. My, what a spitfire she was. Always spoke just what was on her mind, didn't matter who she was talking to. You know she actually asked a boy to a dance before there was a Sadie Hawkins dance in these parts?"

"But then she died, right?" Dean interjected with his usual lack of tact.

"Dean!" Sam hissed.

Dean shrugged and Ty couldn't really blame him. She was dying for Harriet to cut to the chase, as well.

"Yes," Harriet nodded, oblivious to the interplay between the young hunters seated across from her, "she did. It was awful what happened to her."

Harriet's eyes had filled with moisture, glistening tears that threatened to spill. Ty shifted uncomfortably in her already uncomfortable chair. She wasn't thrilled to be in an old folks' home to begin with. Talking to a crying old lady tipped the scales of what she was able to deal with. Without even realizing what she was doing, Ty began searching for an escape, but was unable to find one that wouldn't draw the boys' attention.

"What happened, Harriet?" Sam asked, gently.

Harriet sniffed, bringing her hand up to cover her face as she composed herself, "She was dating this boy, Bobby Thompson, god rest him. They went on a drive and, I guess, Bobby didn't exactly act the gentleman. Beth Ann, being the girl she was, slapped Bobby across the face and told him she'd rather walk home even though they were out in the desert about a mile outside of town. When Bobby came back to the diner without Beth Ann, Wendy, Howard and I went to look for her. When we got there...she was just lying on the ground on the side of the road...and we saw...we saw..."

"What did you see?" Ty asked, sliding forward to the edge of her seat, desperate for the old lady to just spit out what she wanted to know.

"I know it sounds crazy, but...there was this...cowboy walking away from her and when we got closer, he...he disappeared." Harriet revealed, her voice dropping to a bare whisper.

The three hunters exchanged knowing looks before Sam turned back to Harriet, "Thanks, Harriet. That helps a lot."

Harriet merely nodded, still fighting to contain tears. Ty immediately took the opportunity to bolt out of her chair and towards the door. Dean was close behind and Sam followed after excusing them and thanking Harriet a final time.

"Well, that was a colossal waste of time!" Ty exclaimed as she burst out of the front doors of the Valley of the Sun Retirement Community, "Thanks, guys. Now we _still_ know that we're looking for a homicidal cowboy who targets mouthy girls."

"Yeah, I think you struck out on this one, Sammy." Dean agreed.

"I don't think so." Sam shook his head, "Let's take a look down the road out of town."

With that Sam took the lead towards the Impala. Ty looked from Sam to Dean, somewhat stupefied. Dean shook his head, "Don't ask me. He does stuff like this."

Dean then dug his keys out of his jeans pocket and settled into his position in the driver's seat. Sam took shotgun and Ty climbed in the back, feeling an odd sense of déjà vu as she did so. It was almost like it was months ago and she was still hunting the demon, trying to stop the inevitable.

"Hey," Ty asked suddenly as Dean steered the car away from the building and out onto the street, "did you guys ever catch up with your dad?"

Ty noticed Sam stiffen in his seat and Dean's hands tighten on the wheel. It took a long moment before either responded verbally to her question.

"Dad's on some thing about a power struggle between the demons now that Old Yellow Eyes is gone." Dean finally answered, "He ditched us again 'cause he's afraid one of them might try to use Sam however Yellow Eyes wanted to."

"That's nuts!" Ty protested.

"You're telling me." Sam grumbled.

"Hey, one crazy hunter at a time. We knock some sense into Ty, then we can deal with Dad." Dean rebuked his brother.

"I resent that." Ty griped.

"Yeah, we know." Dean replied unapologetically.

Rather than reply, Ty decided that a quick slap to the back of Dean's head would adequately communicate her displeasure.

"Ow!" Dean yelped.

Ty just sat back in her seat, crossed her arms and smiled as she watched Dean rub at the back of his head, as if she'd done serious damage.

'_Any_ _brain damage he might have was there long before I came along_.' Ty remarked to herself.

After a few moments of silence, Dean finally asked, "What are we looking for here, Sam?"

"I'll let you know when I see it." Sam answered, his gaze fixed on the passing scenery as they steadily progressed further outside of town.

The car plunged into silence for a few moments as Sam searched the countryside, Ty followed his gaze to try and see what he was looking for, and Dean tried to keep his impatience from showing with swiftly decreasing levels of success. He was soon shifting in his seat, fiddling with the radio, and repeatedly adjusting the height of his partially open window. Finally, he just couldn't take it anymore.

"Sam...?" he began to ask.

"Pull over." Sam interrupted.

Dean swiftly brought the car to a stop on the side of the road, then gazed at his brother questioningly. Sam, however, didn't notice because he was already climbing out of the car. Ty hurried to follow even though she had no idea what had attracted Sam's attention. All she could see in the area was normal desert scenery: rocks, cacti, prickly bushes and the occasional palo verde tree. Still, Sam seemed sure as he strode away from the road and into the surrounding desert and Ty trusted his judgment so she followed.

Sam stopped suddenly, squatting next to a pile of rocks. The rocks were interesting colors, as if someone had painted them a long time ago, but now most of the color had worn off or faded away. Ty tilted her head to one side as she examined them, looking for a pattern or something that would indicate to her what Sam's interest in the rocks might be. After a few seconds she decided they were just rocks scattered around randomly; she had nothing.

"Sam?" she questioned, watching as he picked up a few of the stones and examined them before placing them back on the ground.

"I think I know why there was a gap in the killings." Sam said, straightening slowly.

"Spill." Ty urged.

"This area is pretty close to the Apache reservation," Sam explained, "and those rocks were painted with sacred colors. I think that fifty years ago, the Native Americans knew what was happening and somehow contained it. Looks like whatever they did lasted for awhile, too, but not anymore. Maybe their lands got pushed back or people forgot about what they did and no one's been doing any upkeep...hell, maybe some flooding knocked it out, but the spirit's loose and probably even more pissed off."

Ty stared at Sam, stunned, "How the hell do you know this stuff?"

"Walking dictionary of weird." Dean called from where he was leaning against the car, observing their actions.

Sam rolled his eyes at his brother and started walking back towards the car, "I think of myself as more of an encyclopedia."

"Freak." Dean replied.

"Jerk." Sam immediately responded.

"Bitch." Dean automatically chimed.

"Children!" Ty interrupted before the argument could go any further, "Could we focus on fighting evil here for just a second?"

Dean and Sam both looked at her, Sam looking slightly guilty and Dean looking absolutely unrepentant. Ty could almost feel the clash between them as she glared back at Dean, forcing a sweet smile on her face, "How about you dig up the bastard for us, Dean?"

Dean smiled back, "Thought you didn't need our help."

Ty's smile slipped at that reminder, causing her to feel annoyance and anger shoot through her once again. It jarred her that Sam could just walk onto the scene of her hunt and solve the riddle like that. Well, so what? She was still learning and he had years of experience on her. Plus, even Dean thought he was a bit freaky with the tons of obscure knowledge he somehow kept stored in his brain. That didn't mean that she couldn't take it from here.

"Fine." Ty snapped, marching over to the trunk, wrenching it open and snatching a shovel out. She began to move gruffly past the boys back towards the spot where she would need to dig, but paused to whirl around and point the shovel handle at Dean menacingly, "I _don't_ need your help."

"Fine." Dean repeated, eyebrows raised challengingly. He grinned at her, "Great."

"Stay out of my way!" Ty growled over her shoulder as she picked her spot to start digging.

"Wouldn't dream of it." Dean answered.

Ty stabbed the ground with the shovel, kicking it hard into the dirt with her foot, taking her aggression out on the ground as she unearthed her ghost. Sam moved to help, but Dean threw an arm out to catch him, pinning him to his spot with a look. Sam shifted uncomfortably, not particularly enjoying being drawn into their fighting, but remained where he was.

Minutes dragged onwards, slowly marching steadfastly towards an hour. Dean was doing his absolute best to piss Ty off, appearing completely at ease and unconcerned as he reclined against the Impala, even grabbing a magazine of questionable morality and flipping through it. Sam had taken to pacing up and down the road on the other side of the car, shooting concerned glances towards Ty and glares at his brother. At this time of year and with the sun drawing nearer the horizon, it wasn't really hot out, but the exertion had caused Ty to breathe heavily and sweat was dripping down her back and beading along her hairline. She was trying to work fast, knowing that if she didn't get to some remains before nightfall, the ghost would certainly show up and try to stop her. But it was hard going and her muscles were starting to protest despite her mind's urging. Despite her recently chosen occupation, Ty didn't have too much practice digging up hundred-year-old grave's as of yet. The ground was hard-packed and resistant to the shovel until she got a few feet down. Then, it was thicker and heavier for some reason. But Ty grit her teeth and kept at it, determined not to show weakness.

Sam, however, was becoming increasingly agitated the lower the sun's position in the sky. He tried not to say anything, knowing that interference would only escalate the situation, but he just couldn't take it anymore. If they didn't torch the bones soon, the ghost would be back, ready and willing to waste Ty. He simply could not continue to be inactive. So, he grabbed his brother by the shirt and dragged him around the car and out of earshot.

"What the hell, dude?" Dean demanded, brushing Sam off.

"You're a dick, you know that?" Sam snapped.

"She said she didn't need our help." Dean shrugged.

"You know she only said that because you keep holding it over her head. Acting like if she actually asked you for help, it would be like saying she can't do it herself. Why do you have to push her like that?"

"God, Sam. What are your periods in sync or something?"

Sam leveled his brother with his most serious look, "Stop being an ass just because you care about her and you're afraid for her."

All humor drained out of Dean's face and his voice was a cold command, "Stay out of it, Sam."

"And let you two kill each other? Let you drown in denial and repression? Yeah, I'll get right on that."

"Don't put this on me!" Dean protested, "This is about her and her trying to get herself killed!"

"Yeah, well you're doing a pretty good job of helping her out with that by leaving her out there to dig up a grave as the sun's setting!" Sam shot back, gesturing angrily in the direction where the girl in question was still busy digging.

Dean paused to take in the darkening sky, smeared with oranges and reds. Maybe Sam did have a point about that. Might put a bit of a dent in his teaching her a lesson if she wound up dead.

"Fine!" Dean conceded. He leaned in close, leveling a finger at Sam, "But this is the last time we're talking about this."

He didn't wait for Sam to answer, but turned his back on him and headed back towards Ty. This girl was seriously too much trouble. Not only did she stir up feelings Dean didn't want or need, but she had a knack for getting him in trouble. Dean wondered for a moment about what Sam had said. How did he know, anyway? Was it really because she was so much like him that Sam seemed to understand so well? That couldn't be it. No way in hell he was such a stubborn, irrational, reckless pain in the ass.

Dean looked up as he moved back to the side of the car Ty was on and froze. Ty was up to her elbows in a large hole in the ground and had a triumphant look on her face that could only mean she had finally found some remains. Behind her, the sun had just dipped below the mountains in the distance, leaving only the fading palate of colors behind it to mark its path. And between the sunset and Ty's confident smile stood a pale cowboy in tattered clothes, his eyes hidden under the brim of his hat, his lips curled upwards, and his six-shooter trained on the back of Ty's head.

Dean could almost see the wheels turning as Ty took in the look on his face. Her smile gradually disappeared and she slowly turned around. Dean saw it all as if it was in slow motion. And he knew with absolute certainty that she wouldn't be able to react fast enough. Coupled with this fact in his mind was a second absolute truth: he could not watch her die a second time.

Dean blinked and his gun was in his hand, aimed at the cowboy's chest. Even at this distance he could see the tightening of the cowboy's hand as he squeezed the trigger. Dean fired as quickly and as rapidly as he could, launching into a flat-out run towards Ty. He hit the ghost twice in the chest before it disappeared, allowing the other shots Dean fired to pass through empty air. Dean stopped firing, but didn't slow, knowing that with his bones exposed, the ghost wouldn't be gone for long. With his eyes focused on his adversary, Dean had lost track of Ty, knowing only that the ghost had gotten off one shot and that one shot was enough. He slid to a stop at the edge of the hole Ty had dug, heart pounding in his chest.

"Holy shit!" Ty exclaimed, slowly standing back up.

Dean exhaled a sigh of relief, realizing that she had just ducked, that she hadn't been hit. And yet, his gut told him that the danger hadn't passed, so he continued to move quickly, reaching down to grab her arm and haul her out of the hole. Ty automatically struggled against the rough handling, but despite her protest still found herself being pulled out of the pit she'd dug and shoved behind Dean. Ty was tempted to shove him from behind and send him flying into the hole he'd just pulled her out of, but resisted the urge, instead drawing her gun and looking around for any sign of her undead desperado friend.

Movement out of the corner of Ty's eye drew her attention and she turned to find the cowboy rematerializing. She raised her gun, cradling the weapon in both hands as she aimed.

"Looking for me, you son of a bitch?" she taunted.

"Damn right, I am." the cowboy growled in reply, his gun aimed at Ty in return.

Ty's finger tensed around the trigger when suddenly something slammed into her right side. She fired on impulse, but her shot missed its target as she was sent flying to the ground. More gunfire sounded around her and it took Ty's brain a second to catch up and sort it all out. Dean had knocked her to the ground, the ghost had fired and Dean had returned the action in kind.

"Damn it, Dean!" Ty snapped, struggling to shove him off of her.

"Keep down." Dean snarled, pushing her back into the dirt, his body sprawled over her and pinning her down, "Sam! Torch this asshole!"

Ty just caught site of Sam sprinting over to the remains and swiftly coating them with salt and gasoline. Meanwhile, Dean continued to exchange gunfire with the appearing and disappearing ghost, keeping him away from Sam. Heedless of the dangers of jostling a man firing a gun, Ty struggled to get back to her feet, desperate to get back into the action.

"Just the spot for ya, ain't it?" the cowboy drawled at her with a sneer, "Knew you couldn't take me down on your own."

Ty just growled in reply, kicking at Dean to try and dislodge him. She finally managed to squirm free of his grasp and scramble back to her feet just as Sam dropped a match on the remains. Ty fired one more bullet, striking the ghost right between the eyes as he screamed in fury. He also got off one last round before he turned to ash along with his bones. Ty felt the bullet breeze just past her ear. She spun around, eyes following its path to see that it had landed in a saguaro almost directly behind her.

It was over. Her hunt...

"You asshole!" Ty screamed, whirling on Dean.

Dean just blinked at her. Ty couldn't tell if his expression was one of apathy or ignorance, but it didn't matter. This had been her hunt and he had charged in where he wasn't welcome, acting like a chauvinistic ass, pushing her face in the dirt right when she most needed to be a part of the fight. Words couldn't quite encompass just how furious she was. She shook with the anger pounding through her veins. She could hardly even think, she was so mad. Half-formed furious accusations chased themselves around her thoughts.

'_How dare he...! Didn't he know...? Hadn't they agreed...? What did he...? God, he was so...! He obviously didn't respect her at all or think that...! God!_' she screamed in her head.

Ty turned and stiffly walked back towards the car. Sam and Dean exchanged a look, confused by her silence. She should be screaming at the top of her lungs, maybe even taking a few swings at Dean, and yet she had stopped after one insult and silently walked back to the car. What the hell did that mean?

"Ty?" Sam asked, following her to the Impala.

Ty ignored him. She opened the door to the rear seat and climbed in. Her arms were crossed over her chest and her eyes still smoldered with rage, but she said nothing, just stared out the window away from the Winchester brothers. Sam glanced back at his brother again, concern etched across his handsome features. Dean merely shrugged and picked up the shovel and trudged back to the car. He tossed the shovel back into the trunk and then took up his place in the driver's seat. Sam hesitantly joined them, opening the passenger door and sliding in. Dean started the car and turned it around, pointing it back towards the city.

The silence was awkward, the tension stifling. Sam shifted uncomfortably, wishing he was elsewhere. Dean pretended he didn't notice and turned the radio on, drumming his fingers against the steering wheel. Ty spent the entire ride back to the city in a full-out resolute silence, glaring broodingly out the window and refusing to acknowledge either Winchester's existence. She could feel Sam's gaze as he looked at her worriedly, caught him glaring at his brother also when he proved too stubborn to even try to make amends with her, but was too furious to risk speaking at all, even if it was just to Sam. She knew that really wasn't fair to Sam, though, so she spent part of her time sulking and the other part trying to calm down enough to form words without losing it completely.

When Ty caught sight of a particular neon sign approaching through the windshield, she suddenly found the composure to say, "Sam, tell Dean to pull over."

"Why?" Dean growled before Sam could even think about repeating her words.

Ty ignored him.

"You're not really going to be this childish, are you?" Dean demanded.

"Sam..." Ty tried again, more urgently because her chosen destination would soon pass them by if they didn't stop.

"Dean, just pull over." Sam urged.

With a frustrated sigh, Dean pulled off the road and into the nearby parking lot of a small bar. Ty immediately sprang out of the car and hurriedly walked up to the door, grasping the handle with both hands and yanking on the heavy wood that barred her entry. The door grudgingly swung open and allowed her into the dimly lit interior of the Cholla Tavern.

"Hey! Look what the cat dragged in!" the bartender and owner of the tavern greeted Ty as she walked in the door and made a beeline for the bar.

"Hey." Ty replied, noncommittally.

The pretty blonde behind the bar winced at Ty's tone, immediately reaching under the counter for some shot glasses, "Been that kind of night, huh?"

"You can say that again, Angie. Line 'em up." Ty nodded, sliding onto a stool.

Angie proceeded to set up a line of five shots in front of Ty, filling them with whiskey to the brim. Next to these she placed a tall glass of beer. Ty had just lifted the first shot to her lips when the door to the bar slammed back against the wall and Dean stormed in, followed closely by Sam. Ty glanced at the boys as they made their entrance, but then quickly turned back to her drink and slammed back the shot.

"What the hell are you doing?" Dean yelled, stomping over and ripping the now empty glass from Ty's hand. He transferred his angry gaze to the bartender, "She's not twenty-one!"

Angie raised both hands, "Yeah, she is. Carded her myself the first day she walked in here."

Dean paused for a second as that information sunk in, then set the shot glass back on the counter, grumbling to himself, "I let her drink once underage at some bar in Colorado and now she's a freaking regular hammering back shots!"

Ty rolled her eyes when she realized he was talking about the time at the One Eyed Jack when she'd been hustling some guys at poker and wanted a drink. Sam must have revealed her age to Dean at that point, thus explaining his reluctance to get her a real drink. Well, that wasn't an issue anymore. She'd turned twenty-one in the time Dean had been gone and was now a frequent fixture at the Cholla Tavern. So much so, in fact, that the contents of the jukebox were now pretty much organized in response to her moods. This was mostly due to the fact that she had almost instantly struck up a friendship with Angie, the owner. Something Ty was particularly grateful for at the moment as the barkeep moved over to the jukebox and started one of her "bad day" songs playing. Ty swiftly downed another shot, chased it with a gulp of beer and then took a third with her as she moved away from the bar over towards the slightly more spacious spot next to the jukebox. As Ty moved around Dean, holding her shot up high so that it wouldn't spill, he stopped her by grabbing her free arm.

"Look, I'm sorry about the hunt, okay?"

"Sorry, Dean. This is my song." she said smoothly, her voice devoid of any outward emotion as she twisted her arm out of his grip and continued on her way to the jukebox.

Dean just stared at her as Ty swayed to the music, downing her shot and dropping the empty glass on a nearby table. Her eyes were closed, as if to block out everyone else's existence. The Ty that Dean remembered meeting those months ago would never be acting like this. She had been shy and self-conscious in this type of scene, especially with him watching her, but it seemed that part of her had died along with her body in the demon's fire. To be honest, Dean was a little mystified by it all. What the heck was going on with her?

The low bass beat of the music caught Dean's attention. It was more heavy death metal than Dean normally listened to, but Dean recognized it as Rob Zombie's "Living Dead Girl." The realization of the song made Dean look even harder at Ty, his very own living dead girl. He knew something had to be done about her, intervention-style if need be, but at the moment he was still so aggravated by her that he felt more like finishing her line of shots than trying to talk to her. So, with a scowl marring his features, that's what he did.

"Dean?" Sam queried, moving onto the stool next to his brother.

Dean grunted in response, letting Sam know he was listening. Even while he was taking both of Ty's remaining shots, he still had one eye on the blonde, still silently dancing in the corner.

Sam wasn't fooled at all by Dean's actions. He knew his brother might look coldly unconcerned, sitting there finishing off Ty's drinks, but he knew that his brother was deeply bothered by the changes in the girl he had come to care about. Sam decided to test exactly how tuned into the situation his brother was.

"Why don't you just go talk to her? You know, comfort her. She's obviously upset, just like when she lost that little girl to those carnies."

Dean set down Ty's beer and looked at his brother incredulously, "Upset? You think she's upset? Dude! With the girl, she was all guilt. This," Dean gestured towards Ty, "this is just apathy. That spook's last shot was so close I saw her hair move and she barely even noticed."

Sam had to admit he was surprised. Not only was Dean pretty clued into what was going on with Ty, he knew what apathy meant. Sam transferred his gaze from Dean to the girl in question, contemplating her behavior himself. Sam hadn't really thought about it before, but now as he reflected, he wondered if maybe the demon hadn't pulled one last trick on them when he'd brought Ty back. What, Sam thought darkly, if she wasn't completely the Ty they'd known before that incident? He and Dean had gone on a hunt a couple months prior where someone had brought back a girl from the dead using some ancient Greek spell and had seen first hand the kinds of problems that went with things that were dead not staying dead. Still, Sam couldn't be sure if there was anything to this disturbing theory and he'd rather not upset his brother anymore than he already was, so he decided to keep those thoughts to himself and just keep an especially close eye on the blonde hunter.


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: First off, thanks to everyone who reviewed last chapter and I'm sorry that I didn't get back to all of you individually. Please review again and I promise I will. Secondly, there are a lot of disclaimers for this chapter. The chapter song is "Fire Woman" by the Cult ('cause Ty's a fire woman and Dean thinks she's to blame, get it?). The lyrics later on in the chapter are (in order of appearance) "Some Kind of Wonderful" by Grand Funk Railroad, "Take It Easy" by the Eagles, and "Crazy Bitch" by Buck Cherry.

Chapter Four: Fire Woman

_Wound up, can't sleep, can't do anything right, little honey,  
Oh, since I set my eyes on you.  
I tell you the truth.  
Twistin' like a flame in a slow dance, baby,  
You're driving me crazy.  
Come on, little honey, come on now!  
Fire! Smoke, she is a rising!  
Fire! Smoke on the horizon!  
Fire! Smoke, she is a rising!  
Fire! Smoke stack lightning!  
Smoke stack lightning.  
Well now...You shake it up, you're to blame, got me swayin' little honey.  
My heart's a ball of burnin' flame.  
Oh, yes it is.  
Trancing like a cat on a hot tin shack,  
Lord, have mercy! Come on little sister, come on and shake it!  
Fire! Smoke, she is a rising!  
Fire! Smoke on the horizon! Yeah.  
Fire! Smoke, she is a rising!  
Fire! Smoke stack lightning! Lightning!  
I was thinkin' what I've been missin'.  
I'll tell you truthfully, well.  
She's comin' close now.  
I can feel her.  
She's getting close to me.  
_

Dean managed to stew in his frustration for a little over an hour before he'd had enough of Ty's new attitude. He'd tried to ignore her, focusing on his drink as he sulked at the bar, but she'd made that impossible now.

The problem had started when she'd stepped outside for a breath of fresh air (not a bad idea, he'd figured considering the number of shots she'd had). He'd shot Sam a look and he'd nodded, knowing that silent message had meant that he should keep an eye on her. The two had slipped outside. They'd only been gone for a minute or two when Ty came back in, Sam on her heels.

"Hey!" she'd yelled, drawing everyone's attention, "Who's black Ducati?"

A guy over at the pool tables had raised his hand, looking really confused. Dean's eyes had narrowed when Ty flashed him a brilliant smile and strode over to him. From where he'd been seated, he hadn't been able to hear what she whispered in his ear when she reached his side, but that hardly mattered. The sight of her leaning in close to some crotch-rocket riding moron was enough. The pleased smirk that appeared on the guy's face in response to whatever she said just tipped the scales.

Dean shoved his stool back and climbed to his feet. Sam was at his side, already giving him a look that said he knew what Dean was thinking and that he didn't like it. Dean ignored the expression, like he did almost every time it appeared on his little brother's face. He heard Sam heave a wary sigh as he moved away from him and towards the pool tables, but he ignored him.

When Dean reached Ty and the guy with the motorcycle on the other side of the room, he was just in time to catch the blonde by the arm to prevent her from following the other guy out of the bar.

"Where do you think you're going?" he demanded.

"Let go, Dean." Ty snapped, glaring at his hand on her arm.

"You know this guy?" Ducati asked, eyeing Dean and sizing him up.

"Unfortunately." Ty said, scowling because Dean had still not let go.

"I'm only gonna say this once," Dean said, leveling Ducati with an even stare over Ty's head that should have told him that Dean was not a person he wanted to mess with, "walk away."

"Fuck you, Dean." Ty growled, annoyed at being talked over.

"No offense, dude, but she doesn't seem too keen on being left alone with you." Ducati replied slowly.

"She's not thinking clearly." Dean deadpanned.

"'Cause I'm thinking for myself?" Ty asked, incredulously, "You are so full of shit!"

"Would you stop talking?" Dean grumbled, "You're not helping. You're pissed at me, I get it. Let's go home and you can yell at me in private."

Ty flashed a smile at Dean that was too much teeth and no feeling, "Get lost, Dean."

With that, Ty twisted until she could slip her arm out of Dean's grip. She seemed to be squirming out of his hold quite a bit lately. Moving closer to Ducati (also known as Ryan), she gently nudged him towards the door again. They began to move away when Dean grabbed Ryan by the collar, yanking him backwards. As Ryan stumbled backwards and tried to turn around so that he could defend himself, Dean launched a punch that caught him in the chin. As Ryan reeled from the punch, Ty leaped to defend him, yelling at Dean as Angie was yelling at all three of them to take it outside. Ty shoved Dean hard with both hands, forcing him back a few steps before he refocused his attention from Ducati onto her. Before she could assault him again, he grabbed her wrists and pushed her towards Sam, counting on his brother to keep her out of it. As always, Sam had his back, catching Ty before she could recover, wrapping his arms around her and thereby pinning her arms to her sides. Ty was still yelling, mostly four-letter words, but Dean had already tuned her out. His eyes were trained on Ducati as he pulled himself together, raising his fists and looking for a weakness. Dean almost grinned. This guy didn't have a chance.

Dean gestured for the guy to go ahead and try it. Ducati walked right into it, unleashing a right hook. Dean ducked, popping back up inside the guy's defenses and catching him with an uppercut. Dean could feel the guy's jaw pop. It wasn't surprising that his eyes lost focus and he collapsed to the floor.

"Get out of my bar." the bartender snapped, rushing onto the scene and pushing Dean away from the unconscious biker.

Dean backed away with a shrug, "I tried to warn him."

"Out!" Angie yelled, pointing furiously towards the door.

Dean spread his hands as if to demonstrate his innocence as he backed towards the door. He glanced towards Sam, who released Ty. She immediately bolted past them out the door, forcing the boys to hurry after her. She paced beside the Impala, wishing she didn't need the Winchesters to drive her home. The whole point of picking up the guy with the Ducati was to be able to avoid them. Then, Dean had to go and ruin it, like he had everything she'd had going before he rolled into town. Even Angie was probably pissed at her now.

Dean and Sam approached the car slowly once they saw that she hadn't run off on foot. Sam glanced at his brother questioningly, wondering how he planned to handle the now even more volatile female. Dean shrugged and silently unlocked the car. He knew how much it irked Sam when he did this, causing problems and then refusing to address them, but he much preferred to let Ty sulk than try and have a heart to heart. As long as she wasn't doing something stupid, she could be angry. He knew this course of action wasn't really getting him any closer in solving the problem of Ty, but he couldn't help it. When it came to fixing an emotionally warped girl, he honestly didn't have a clue and he knew it. So, for the time being, he would settle for his tried and true method of simply forcing her not to do things that would spell trouble. Maybe in the morning, when his temper had cooled off and his mind was clearer, he could force himself to talk to Sam about it and see what he thought they needed to do, but for the meantime, since he really didn't even know exactly what was wrong, this would have to do.

Dean made the drive back to Ty's in record time and all three were relieved to escape from the tension of the car. Ty had gone back to giving them the silent treatment, pretending she was hardly even aware of their presence. She let herself into her apartment, leaving the door open behind her as if she didn't care whether or not they followed her in. She went straight to her room and slammed the door behind her, hoping that would communicate effectively enough that she wanted to be left alone.

"Dude, would you please just talk to her." Sam sighed, collapsing on the couch.

"Why don't you talk to her?" Dean grumbled, eyeing the loveseat and imagining how uncomfortable it might be to sleep there.

"She's not _my_ girlfriend." Sam retorted, "And _I_ didn't piss her off."

"She's not my girlfriend." Dean griped.

"Fine. Latest woman to be spurned by Dean Winchester. Whatever." Sam amended sarcastically, "Still your problem, man."

"So, I deal with it in the morning." Dean shrugged, scoping out the arm chair and wondering if that would be preferably to the loveseat.

"Dean, let me clue you into something since you're obviously clueless about this stuff, if you leave it till morning, she's going to be ten times as pissed off." Sam advised, "At least try to square things with her. Making the effort gets you brownie points."

"Thanks, Dr. Phil." Dean rejoined with a roll of his eyes.

But, unfortunately, he conceded that Sam was probably right about this sort of stuff and resignedly trudged over to Ty's door. He paused before knocking, glancing back at Sam as if to ask if he was really sure this was such a great idea. Sam just raised his eyebrows as if to ask what he was waiting for. Dean sighed and knocked twice.

"What?" came the angry bark through the door.

"Open up. We need to talk." Dean replied.

"Dude!" Sam hissed.

"I mean, can I come in?" Dean amended, glancing heavenward with a look on his face that said he couldn't believe he was really doing this and not settling in to sleep.

"Why?" Ty asked, apparently not impressed by Dean's attempt at politeness.

Dean ground his teeth, "'Cause I don't like talking to doors?"

"Not good enough. Try again."

"How about because if you don't open the door in the next thirty seconds, I'm picking the lock?" Dean growled at the door.

"Enter at your own risk, Winchester. I've been practicing with throwing stars." Ty warned, glaring at her side of the door in turn.

"Bitch." Dean grumbled.

"What did you call me?" Ty demanded.

"Wow, thin walls." Dean remarked, "Look, you want to yell through the door, fine. I know you're pissed at me and that's fine. Truth is, I'm a little pissed at you, too. I'll give you the hunt, we'll call that my bad, but the shit at the bar is all on you, babe."

"You call that an apology?" Sam asked, wide-eyed.

"Shut up, Sam." Dean snapped.

"Whatever, Dean." Ty replied, staring at the door, her face and eyes loosing all signs of outward emotion. She wasn't even angry anymore, "I don't even care. Do what you gotta do, but stay out of my business. The deal with us was one hunt and done, remember? We're done."

Dean was slow to reply, frankly a little stunned at what she'd just said. Not that he'd been looking for a serious relationship or anything, far from it in fact, but he'd figured that he and Ty were something more than just a one and done at this point. He didn't know what to call their relationship, but it wasn't that. He'd figured Ty felt the same, he'd felt it in her kisses even, and yet here she was telling him it was over, telling him to stay out of her life. What the hell? When he met her, she'd wanted nothing more than to join them. Now she wanted them...no, him...gone. Well, if that's what she really wanted, fine! And when she wound up dead because of her stupidity, it would be her own fault. If she wasn't going to let him in, he wasn't going to stick around and wait for that to happen.

"You know what? You can say that again, sweetheart!" Dean snapped, "I don't need this shit."

Dean spun around and stalked towards the door. Sam called after him, but he ignored him. Ty heard the front door slam, but hardly reacted. She just sat silently in her room, digesting what had happened. She'd finally done it. She'd driven him away. Frankly, she was a little surprised it had taken this long.

"Ty?" Sam called hesitantly. Ty didn't respond, but he continued anyway, "I know that neither of you really meant that. We just want to help you."

Ty remained silent. Sam shook his head sadly, wishing this didn't have to be so hard for all of them, but also knowing that these sorts of things, the kind that involved tangled webs of emotion, were never easy. So, seeing as how they were currently at an impasse, Sam returned to the couch and settled in to wait for Dean's eventual return.

Dean, meanwhile, immediately sought the comfort of the Impala, his usual refuge from the rest of the world. Opening the door and collapsing inside, Dean quickly jammed the key in the ignition and brought the car to life. The hum of the engine was an immediate relief, causing him to expel the breath he hadn't been fully aware he was holding. He wrapped his hands around the steering wheel, adjusting his grip on the wheel, hands flexing before he finally put the car in drive and moved out on the road. Although the Impala always served to sooth Dean's anxiety to some extent, he could still feel frustration coursing through his veins. It wasn't the car's fault; he just couldn't get that damn girl out of his head. With a second sigh, this one markedly more agitated, he reached out and turned on the radio, seeking out one of the classic rock stations Ty had alerted them to the last time they'd been through this town.

"..._When I hold her in my arms/ You know she sets my soul on fire/ Oooh, when my baby kisses me/ My heart becomes filled with desire/ When she wraps her lovin' arms around me/ About drives me out of my mind/ Yeah, when my baby kisses me/ Chills run up and down my spine/ My baby, she's alright/ My baby, she's clean out-of-sight/ Don't you know that she is ... she's some kind of wonderful_..." the radio blared Grand Funk Railroad at him.

Dean scowled at the radio and changed the station. Ty was some kind of something alright, but wonderful wasn't the first word that came to mind. Still, the idea here was to stop thinking about her.

"..._Well I'm running down the road trying to loosen my load/ got a world of trouble on my mind/ Lookin' for a lover who won't blow my cover/ she's so hard to find/ Take it easy, take it easy/ Don't let the sound of your own wheels make you crazy/ Come on baby, don't say maybe/ I gotta know if your sweet love is gonna save me_..."

"Damn it!" Dean growled, spinning the radio dial at random, "Even the freaking radio's turned against me."

The dial eventually landed on a station playing a fast rock beat. Dean settled back for a second, finally feeling some relief. Then, the lyrics kicked back in.

"_Hey! You're a crazy bitch/ but you fuck so good I'm on top of it/ When I dream I'm doing you all night/ Scratches all down my back to keep me right on_."

Dean leaped forward in his seat and quickly hit the power on the radio. Silence was better at this point since it was clear he wasn't going to escape songs that brought Ty to mind. His hands tightening around the wheel and his foot pressing harder against the gas, Dean fell back on a tried and true method of outrunning his problems and burying his feelings.

Ty, on the other hand, sat on her floor surrounded by CDs. There was a neat stack to her left and a swiftly growing haphazard pile on her right. Ty picked up another CD from the stack.

"Reminds me of Dean." she said, shaking her head and tossing the CD to her right. She continued to grab the next CD of the top, "Reminds me of Dean. Reminds me of Dean. Reminds me of Dean. Damn it! Don't I own anything that doesn't bring that damn boy to mind?"

With a loud growl of irritation, Ty dug through her remaining CDs to find Blue Man Group, the only CD she owned that had a fast beat, but no words. She prayed that would be neutral enough to allow her to forget Dean for at least a moment.

Popping the CD in her player and hitting play, Ty jumped to her feet and instantly began wailing on her punching bag. She forced herself not to picture a particular handsome face with a devil-may-care grin and sparkling hazel eyes as her target and instead tried not to think at all. Unfortunately, every time when she thought she'd finally managed to get him out of her head, he wormed his way back into her thoughts. He was like a freaking addiction and she just couldn't shake it.

A year ago, Ty had never thrown a punch without holding back a little. Now, she was pounding the punching bag hard enough to make her hands ache and still finding little satisfaction. It was awfully tempting to sneak out of here past Sam and go find a good, old fashioned bar fight to take her agitation out on. In fact, it was too tempting.

Ty stopped sparring with her punching bag and quirked her head, trying to hear Sam's activities over her stereo. She could hear the television. Ty tip-toed over to her door and cautiously pulled it open just enough for her to peak through. Sam was indeed sitting on her couch, watching the TV and sipping a beer. Although he seemed perfectly at ease, zoned out even, Ty knew it would be impossible to get past him without him knowing. Ty closed the door and turned around, seeking another escape route. Her eyes alighted upon the window. Her window wasn't far from the balcony that opened out from her living room. If she was careful, she could probably slip out the window, over to the balcony, then drop to the ground outside. Between the stereo and the television, she could probably pull it off without Sam knowing.

Ty pulled open the window as far as it would go. The window was right over her bed, giving her something to stand on that made it not terribly difficult to slip outside. With her feet hanging outside, Ty flipped over onto her stomach, hanging on to the windowsill until she could get her feet over to the edge of the balcony. When she found the edge of the balcony with her foot, she slowly lowered herself further, using her feet to pull her over. For a second when she let go of the window and found herself balancing precariously on the top of the balcony ledge, she wondered if this was such a great idea, especially with alcohol still in her system, and if she might just end up with some broken bones and a trip to the hospital instead. Then, she found her balance and was able to hop down onto the balcony itself. The second her feet hit the solid floor, those thoughts of caution disappeared. She waited for a second to see if Sam was going to come running, alerted by the sound of her jumping down from the ledge. When nothing happened, she proceeded to climb over the ledge, holding on to the bars and lowering herself once again until she was dangling below the balcony itself. It was still a ways to the ground, probably around nine feet, but thankfully there was a patch of grass below to soften her landing. Ty let go, bending her knees on landing and allowing herself to fall forward. It wasn't very cool looking to end up on hands and knees, but it was much better for her joints to soften the blow of landing as much as possible.

Regaining her feet and dusting off her hands, Ty looked back up at her window with a grin. Sam was oblivious and she was out of there. Feeling pretty cocky, Ty strode towards the parking lot and her car.

Dean, by this time, had decided that simply driving was just not going to cut it this time. He needed to do something more active and less passive. This wasn't going to go away on its own. Maybe he could drown it.

Dean pulled into the parking lot of the next really run-down looking bar he came across, parking around back and far away from the other cars so his baby wouldn't be in harm's way. This was the sort of place most people passed by, wary of its appearance and the sort of clientele it undoubtedly attracted. For Dean, at this moment, that was precisely its charm. The road hog-style motorcycles out front promised rough men who weren't afraid to fight, the lack of windows promised a dark place where one could forget the passage of time, and the neon sign out front that assured him that the place was open was as welcoming as anything Dean could imagine.

Dean strode up to the door and pushed it open. The inhabitants of the bar, probably almost all regulars, glanced up when he entered, but then quickly returned to their previous occupations. Dean took in the room quickly: first, picking out the people who would most likely be a threat, then the exits should he need to make a quick getaway, finally taking notice of the pool tables, the dart boards and the selection lined up behind the bar. Taking his time, Dean wandered over to the bar and ordered a stiff drink. The bartender eyed him in return as if skeptical about Dean's presence in his bar, but then filled the order and placed the glass in front of the young hunter. Dean looked down into the amber liquid, wondering if there was enough booze in the world, let alone this bar, to make him forget the complicated mess he was in. Then, he shrugged to himself and decided that he would never know unless he gave it a try. With that thought in mind, he lifted the cool glass to his lips and downed the contents in one long swallow, coughing slightly as the alcohol seared its way down his throat to join the two shots of Ty's he'd had earlier.

"Bartender!" Dean called, slamming the glass back onto the bar, "Keep 'em coming."

Ty prowled the streets in her crappy car, hoping she wasn't driving poorly enough to draw any unwanted attention as she swiftly evaluated each bar and nightclub she passed in terms of the likelihood of its satisfying her needs. She finally ended up pulling into the parking lot of one shady looking place that she normally bypassed on her way through the area without a second glance. Tonight was not a night for familiarity. Tonight was a night to get lost.

Ty could hear yelling inside as she walked up to the doors and closed her hand over the handle. She paused, listening to the voices, but she couldn't make out anything resembling words. It just sounded like a rowdy bunch of guys. Well, she didn't care. At this point the sound of gunfire on the other side of that door wouldn't have deterred her entrance. Ty pushed the door open and strode in. Taking in the scene before her, her lips immediately curved upwards in a pleased smirk. This had definitely been the right choice. She'd been looking for a fight and here she'd walked right into the middle of one. Perfect.

Ty moved forward, fully prepared to leap into the middle of the fray when she caught sight of the person already occupying that position. Her smile disappeared faster than she could blink.

"Son of a bitch!" she exclaimed.

The sound of a pissed off female voice drew a bit of attention and more than one head turned to see who had entered. Unfortunately, one such head belonged to the person Ty was so desperate to avoid at the moment.

"Ty?!" Dean exclaimed in utter astonishment.

Before she could answer or Dean could get another word out, one of his opponents through another punch at his face, drawing his attention back to the fight and effectively ending whatever time out Ty might have momentarily created. With a long suffering sigh and markedly less enthusiasm, Ty slipped into the brawl, tapping a brute on the shoulder and unleashing a punch that shattered his nose when he turned around. She'd be damned if Dean was going to ruin this for her, too. Besides, it seemed he'd somehow managed to piss off an entire bar in addition to her and she couldn't exactly just leave him here to get his ass kicked. Although, if she did manage to drag him out of here in one piece, she fully intended to give him a thorough beating herself.

In the midst of punching and kicking her way through a biker gang's worth of burly meatheads, Ty found herself back-to-back with Dean.

"Didn't expect to run into you here." Dean commented, punctuating his sentence with a pained grunt as a fist found his jaw and he fell into a nearby table.

"Winchester, if you don't stop talking, I'm going to knock you unconscious myself." Ty growled in response, ducking a similar attack from her side of the fight.

Dean scrambled back to his feet, rubbing his jaw and testing it out to see if it was still in the right place. Apparently deciding it was, he replied, "Looks like you're a little busy at the moment, sweetheart."

Ty's teeth clenched at the pet-name and she lashed out furiously at the nearest drunkard, pretending it was Dean's handsome face she was targeting. Where did he get off calling her 'sweetheart?'

"Besides," Dean continued, grabbing a guy by the shoulders and bringing his stomach into abrupt contact with his knee, "I was here first and I don't remember inviting you to the party."

Ty would have informed him exactly how much his permission of her activities really mattered to her if she hadn't gotten distracted by her anger and caught of guard by some guy in a leather jacket wielding a pool cue. She cried out as the cue caught her across the ribs and snatched at the weapon before her adversary could withdraw it and attack again. She attempted to yank the stick out of his hands, but his grip on it was solid. And seeing as how Ty was now a little preoccupied in her tug-o-war battle and had both hands wrapped around the pool cue, she couldn't move fast enough to defend herself when someone else came at her, landing a punch right across her cheek bone. Ty could feel that this was getting rapidly out of hand. Despite her gusto, she was out of her league on this one. Every guy in this bar had probably about sixty pounds on her and a lot of experience in this type of fight. Hell, even Dean was undoubtedly a regular when it came to bar brawls. Ty, on the other hand, could still count her bar fight experiences on one hand (although the number was growing rapidly thanks to those "bad nights" at Cholla's, much to Angie's displeasure). She was loathe to pull a weapon on someone and possibly escalate the seriousness of the situation and there was absolutely no way in hell she was going to ask Dean for help. She needed to refocus some of their attention.

"That all you got, ugly?" Ty taunted with a smirk, "Maybe we should get your momma in here to throw the punches for you."

As anticipated, the scruffy alcoholic who'd landed a punch saw red and came at Ty again, swinging. Ty ducked and yanked back on the pool cue at the same time, pulling the guy on the other end of the stick right into the line of fire. And thankfully, that was all it took, one misdirected punch, to turn those two against each other. The guy in leather released the pool cue and returned the punch he'd received, forgetting about Ty completely. In the moment of relief that afforded her, Ty surveyed her surroundings and saw that by now most of the bar had devolved into chaos, rather than concentrated fighting. Dean was still exchanging right hook with some guy in Harley T-shirt, but everyone else seemed to be fighting amongst themselves now. Ty moved around behind Dean to come up next to him, swinging the pool cue like a club and breaking it across the Harley guy's thick head. He dropped, falling into a table and breaking it on his way down.

"Thank me later." Ty snapped, grabbing a fistful of Dean's shirt and propelling him towards the door.

Dean shook her hold off, but took the hint and quickly ducked his way through to the exit, Ty on his heels. Once outside, he stopped, spinning around to face her, still just as tense and ready to throw punches as he'd been inside.

"I never asked for your help." he barked, oblivious to the blood trickling down his face from a cut above one eyebrow, over the other cheek and out his nose.

Ty just raised her eyebrows at him, glancing pointedly at his injuries. She'd tried not to let it show that her own cheek was throbbing and she suspected she also had some serious bruising across her left side in roughly the shape of a pool cue. Not to mention that her hands hurt like hell. Besides, if he didn't realize as soon as he said that what a jackass he was since she never asked for his help with her hunt either, he was a complete idiot.

"What the hell are you doing here anyway?" Dean continued, refusing to respond verbally to the look she was giving him, but swiftly swiping at the blood from his nose with his hand.

Ty did not want to get into that with him. So, she spun on her heel and began stomping back towards the car, biting out, "Like you care."

Dean wasn't about to let her walk away from him like that. He leaped forward, grabbing her arm above the elbow and using her momentum to spin her back around towards him. He was prepared for the punch she automatically launched at him and stepped out of the way of the blow before grabbing her other arm. Ty didn't struggle so much as give him a look that said he was incredibly lucky that he wasn't bursting into flames from the heat of it.

"Stop saying that." Dean commanded.

"Why should I?" Ty challenged.

Rather than answer that question and potentially delve too far into an emotional discussion, Dean dodged that landmine and fired a question back at her, "What is going on with you?"

What was going on with her? Deep down, Ty knew that what was going on with her was messed up, but that knowledge was buried way too deeply for her to even think about answering Dean's question. Between her and owning the problem were thick walls of anger and frustration.

"What? What do you think is wrong with me, Dean? I'm being reckless? So what? You thought I was reckless and crazy before. What the hell's the difference now?" Ty demanded.

"You know damn well what the difference is." Dean snapped. He paused and took a deep breath, shutting his eyes momentarily before opening them to look at her again, "Just talk to me."

"And say what?" Ty asked, refusing to let her anger go.

"I don't know! Why don't you try explaining to me what in that screwed up head of yours makes you think it's a good idea to throw yourself in the middle of a bar brawl? Hell, I'm sure you'd do the same thing if that had been a room full of demons! Do you really want to die? Is that it? If I'm getting this wrong, just let me know 'cause it really seems like you've lost it, babe." Dean accused, his voice rapidly gaining volume until he was yelling at her.

"What the hell do you expect?" Ty yelled back, struggling free of Dean's hold, "You want to know the difference, Dean? The difference is that when I did dangerous things before, I had a purpose. I was trying to prove myself, sure, but I was also trying like hell to stop Sam's vision from coming true. And yet, at the end of it, no matter how hard I fought or what any of us did, it was all for nothing. I still wound up burning on the ceiling, Dean! If nothing I do matters, who the hell cares if I throw myself in harm's way? It's all borrowed time, anyway."

Ty's voice had lost it's fury by the end of her rant, trailing into a whisper as she realized what she'd just said. She could feel Dean's stare even though she had her head down and couldn't see it. She could feel his surprise at her outburst. Damn it! No one was supposed to be able to get to her like that, break through all the barriers she'd built up. How was she supposed to pretend that everything was fine, that she was fine, now?

Dean's hand brushed her arm and Ty jumped back, head snapping up. She caught the sympathy and pain in his eyes in the second before she hurriedly looked away again, backing quickly away from him.

"Don't touch me." she mumbled.

"Ty..." Dean objected, moving towards her.

"No!" Ty cried, the force of her protest causing Dean to halt in his tracks.

Ty wasted no time, taking the opportunity to run, sprinting away from Dean and back towards her car. She needed distance, especially from him. Dean was dangerous. Without him around, she'd still be broken, but she could bury it deep inside where it hardly mattered. She could pretend like she didn't feel and if she tried hard enough, almost convince herself. That was so much better than trying to unravel the mess that she knew she was inside and had been ever since her encounter with the yellow-eyed demon.

Ty sped out of the parking lot and down side-streets away from the area. She drove fast because she didn't want to risk Dean following her. She watched her rearview with an intensity bordering on paranoia, looking for a sleek black outline with double headlights. She never saw anything like that, though, and finally decided that she'd ditched him and it was safe to pull over when she reached the cemetery outside of town. She knew from past experience that no one was ever there that late and she would be alone.

Ty parked the car, but didn't immediately exit. She leaned forward, allowing her head to rest on her hands on the steering wheel for a moment. Her mind kept playing back her own voice, throwing her admission back at her and refusing to let her forget it. She wasn't herself anymore; she'd changed. What did that mean? Did she even care?

"No." Ty said out loud, sitting up again, "I don't."

She opened her car door and stepped out, brushing imaginary dirt off her clothes as if she could sweep away what had just happened as easily. Her face adapting the now familiar mask of nonchalance, she strode through the partially open gates into the cemetery. She wandered absently among the headstones for awhile, perusing the names and dates with no real interest. Finally, she reached the mausoleum and had a seat on the steps. She'd sat in this exact spot the night she'd first met Dean Winchester, her mind recalled. Ty quickly pushed that thought out of her mind. This was a cemetery, a quiet place for the dead to rest. And she belonged here, too, didn't she? She had died, after all.

Ty leaned against the fancy stone pillars that ordained the front of the mausoleum, allowing her eyes to drift closed. No sounds disturbed her and she soon found herself deep in an exhausted slumber.

However, despite the peace of the graveyard, Ty was not alone. Another presence watched as she let her guard down, smiling to itself as it observed her. It had watched her for awhile now, waiting for this moment when her defenses were weakest. It was ironic, really, that it had the Winchesters to thank for that. It would be sure to thank them later.


	5. Chapter 5

A/N: Sorry about the delay. And on a cliff-hanger of sorts, no less. Well, to make up for it and per Cade's repeated requests, there's some naughtiness in this chapter. Bonus points to anybody who sees what's going on here. Lyrics are, of course, from Santana's Black Magic Woman. Please review.

Chapter Five: Black Magic Woman

_Got a black magic woman  
Got a black magic woman  
I've got a black magic woman  
Got me so blind I cant see  
That she's a black magic woman  
She's trying to make a devil out of me  
Don't turn your back on me baby  
Don't turn your back on me baby  
Yes don't turn your back on me baby  
Stop messing round with your tricks  
Don't turn your back on me baby  
You just might pick up my magic sticks  
Got your spell on me baby  
Got your spell on me baby  
Yes you got your spell on me baby  
Turning my heart into stone  
I need you so bad, magic woman  
I cant leave you alone_

When Ty woke up, her body was stiff from sleeping sitting up on the cold stones of the mausoleum. She stood slowly, stretching her limbs, pausing to let her circulation bring warmth back into her extremities. Flexing her fingers, Ty looked up and gazed around at her surroundings. It was later in the morning already, the sun climbing high in the sky. Its rays brightened the graveyard, warming the headstones, but it didn't reach the shade under the mausoleum where Ty stood, swathed in shadow. A wicked smile slowing appeared on her face.

Silently, Ty strode back to her car and got in, driving quickly back to her apartment. The Winchesters would most likely be waiting for her there, but that was just fine. She was hardly concerned about them at this point. In fact, she was looking forward it.

Ty made one stop on the way, pulling into a gas station. She stretched again as she exited her car, knowing that she had drawn the attention of the lonely attendant inside as she did so. She smirked and kicked the car door closed before heading inside. The attendant said nothing as she entered to the chiming of the electronic door bell, merely watched her silently as she strode around the small aisles of gas station amenities. Ty could feel his eyes on her, but was unconcerned. He was hardly worth her notice.

She picked out a cherry Coke and a pack of bubblegum before approaching the counter. She placed them in front of the clerk without looking at him, then turned her back to the counter, letting her eyes roam around the vicinity of the store in a bored fashion.

"Find everything okay?" the attendant asked as he rang up her items without glancing down at them.

Ty glanced over her shoulder, meeting his eyes for the first time. She raised an eyebrow skeptically at the greasy young man, silently asking him if he actually cared. He cleared his throat awkwardly and looked away. Ty rolled her eyes and went back to her surveying of the store.

"That'll be three seventeen." the clerk ventured nervously.

Ty reached into her pocket and pulled out a few crumbled bills. She turned slowly and pressed them down on the counter, sliding her hand across the surface towards the clerk. Her eyes caught his again, staring into them intently.

"You'll spot me the change, won't you?"

The clerk looked uncertain, but despite his misgivings, found himself stammering out, "O...okay."

Ty flashed him a smile that was anything but genuine, grabbed her items and left. Ten minutes later found her pulling up at her apartment complex. Ty finished her soda, tossing the empty bottle onto the floor of her car before getting out and looking up at her apartment door. No doubt the Winchesters had woken up sometime earlier and were currently discussing what they should do about the "Ty situation." Ty rolled her eyes again and headed for the stairs.

Marching up to her apartment door, Ty let herself in, knowing the noise of her entry would attract the boys' attention. She slipped inside, turning to close the door behind her. When she turned back around to face in to her apartment, she found Sam and Dean both on their feet, looking at her.

"What?" Ty asked, playing oblivious.

Dean and Sam both looked away momentarily, unsure of what to say, before Dean ventured to ask, "Where were you all night?"

Ty shrugged, "Out."

She moved past the boys to get to her fridge, searching inside for something to eat. Now that she thought about it, she was absolutely starving! She snatched a peach off the fruit shelf and began munching, savoring the sweet taste.

Sam meanwhile exchanged a confused glance with his brother. Dean had told him about what had happened last night, and this just didn't follow. He'd anticipated an emotional wreck of the girl they knew, with tear streaks staining her cheeks, barging in here yelling and then hiding in her room. He most certainly hadn't expected her to waltz back in as if everything was perfectly fine and nothing had happened. Apparently she was even more repressed than Dean, something Sam hadn't really thought was possible. It also didn't bode well for her mental and emotional state if she still wasn't acknowledging any of it.

"Everything okay?" he asked slowly, eyes narrowed slightly as he watched her carefully for her reaction to the question.

"Fine." Ty said with another shrug, still focused more on her breakfast than on Sam.

"You didn't seem fine last night." Dean reminded her.

Ty paused as she thought over how to handle this. Finally, she heaved a sigh, shaking her head before looking up at Dean and Sam, "Look, I was kind of drunk last night and, yeah, pretty upset about the hunt. Just a really weird head space, okay? Can we please just forget last night even happened and move on?"

"Move on?" Dean repeated, confused.

What did that mean? Ty had said a lot of things the night before that he wouldn't soon forget, including her statement about the two of them being over. If she wanted him to just forget about that, pretend it never happened, what did she want exactly? Besides that, his aching bruises made it hard for him to ignore the facts of last night completely.

"Yeah." Ty nodded, biting into her peach again. She chewed quickly and swallowed before adding, "Let's find another hunt. Something elsewhere. I think a change of scenery is just what I need."

Sam and Dean exchanged another look. Something wasn't right about this, but judging by Sam's shrug, neither of them knew what it was exactly. Not clearly enough to call her on it at this point anyway. And yet, Dean's gut instinct was still telling him to watch her closely, that there was some kind of danger.

"Alright." he finally replied, "Why don't we stop by the Roadhouse and see if Ellen's got anything?"

"Cool." Ty nodded, spinning around and heading to her room to pack, finishing off her fruit as she did so.

Sam waited until she was out of sight before moving closer to his brother and whispering, "Something's weird with her, right?"

Dean nodded, "Yeah. Something."

"I mean, you said you guys had a huge fight, right?"

"Yeah, Sam. We did. And I didn't even get any hot, angry sex out of it, either." Dean complained, inwardly grinning when that comment caused Sam to make a disgusted face.

"Grab something to eat if you want, guys!" Ty called from her room, interrupting their whispered banter, "I'm almost ready to hit the road!"

"Okay." Dean called back, "We'll meet you at the car."

Sam grabbed their things, which he'd brought up from the car earlier, while Dean snatched a few things from Ty's fridge. Sam raised an eyebrow at the collection of sodas, fruit, and Jell-O pudding cups in his brother's arms.

"What?" Dean demanded, "She offered."

Sam rolled his eyes. Trust Dean not to let whatever drama was currently unfolding in their lives get in the way of him satisfying his appetite. The boys moved outside, loading up the car. As Sam was placing their duffel bags in the back seat, his eyes alighted upon a small flask of holy water that had been tossed haphazardly onto the floor in the back at some point and his thoughts from the night before about Ty returned to him. Glancing over at Dean and seeing that he was currently distracted by the task of opening the car door without dropping any of his food items, Sam reached down and grabbed the flask, pocketing it quickly. When the opportune moment presented itself, he'd test out his theory. It couldn't hurt, after all.

"Sammy!" Dean finally called in frustration as he once again almost lost a precious pudding cup in his attempt to reach for the door handle.

Sam straightened, pulling his torso out of the back of the car and moving to rescue his brother from his current dilemma.

"I got it." Ty said, appearing behind Dean with her own duffle bag in one hand. She reached past him and opened his car door, a hint of a smile on her face. Looking at her in her fresh clothes, still slightly damp from a quick shower, Dean might almost be tricked into believing her that yesterday didn't matter, that everything was just fine, back to normal. He almost physically shook his head to try and shake off that tempting delusion, allowing himself to remember her heated words from last night rather than recall some of the better moments between them.

The effect of these thoughts was that Dean was slow to react to Ty's gesture and a strange play of emotions flashed across his face. He finally snapped out of it and dropped into his seat, mumbling, "Thanks."

"Yeah, no problem." Ty replied, her tone implying Dean was being really strange.

Dean watched her in his side-view mirror as she moved to the back door, shoving her duffle bag over onto one side with theirs and making room for herself. He must be getting soft because he really did miss the girl he'd met a little over six months prior, the girl he'd traded Zeppelin lyrics as well as passionate embraces with. Even when she'd been driving him nuts (like when she'd made him think she liked Sam instead), he'd still found himself enjoying her company, like when they'd stayed up watching that Ghosthunters show. Now all he could see was the dark bruise that stained her cheekbone, the one that immediately brought her confession about her lack of caution back to mind. Which also made him feel immensely guilty because he knew that her issues now were all his fault. He was supposed to protect her from the demon and he'd failed. Sure, he'd managed to get her out of that fiasco alive, but he hadn't spared her the experience. It hadn't occurred to him at the time what that might do to her. She'd seemed fine when he'd left her. But then, she seemed for the most part to be fine now, too. He never should have let her stay with him. His dad had been right, after all. He was like poison, killing everyone around him. No wonder his dad skipped town.

Frowning, Dean tore his gaze from Ty and looked over at his brother who'd just joined him in the car. He'd infected Sammy, too. That werewolf gig in San Francisco was a perfect example. How could he have let that happen to his little brother?

Dean clamped down on his thoughts before they really ran away with him, telling himself to quit his whining and get this show on the road. He started the car and pointed it in the direction of the Roadhouse, wasting no time hitting the highway and driving almost as quickly as he had to get here in the first place. He kept the radio turned up so as to ward off any conversation, pretending he, too, was perfectly fine and not feeling the strain of it all.

"You boys are awfully quiet." Ty finally broke the silence between them over an hour later.

"Sorry." Sam mumbled.

Dean remained silent.

Ty leaned forward, draping her arms over the seat between them, "Come on, guys. Don't be like this. I'm bored. Talk to me."

"Now she wants to talk." Dean grumbled under his breath quietly so neither passenger would be able to understand him.

"You guys must have gone on some hunts since I saw you last." Ty continued, "Anything interesting?"

When that failed to get a response, Ty tacked on, "Sammy finally get laid?"

Well, that question got a reaction, at least. Ty's eyebrows raised slightly as Dean's hands tightened on the wheel again and he glanced over at Sam with a concerned expression. Sam looked away, choosing to face the window rather than his brother. Something was definitely up.

"Oookay." Ty drawled, "Forget I said anything."

With an exaggerated sigh, Ty fell back against her seat again, slouching down. She pulled the pack of bubblegum out of her pocket and unwrapped a piece, popping it in her mouth. She chewed loudly, hoping that the annoying pops would aggravate Dean enough to make him talk. After the first few minutes, when Dean didn't respond, she decided to up the ante by propping her feet up on the back of the front seat.

Dean's brow furrowed in consternation. She must be deliberately trying to annoy him into killing her. It was a new phase of her suicidal tendencies. And it was working. For the life of him, he couldn't recall Ty ever even chewing gum before, but now she was popping bubblegum like some kind of annoying preteen. He could feel the vein in his right temple pound with every snap and pop.

Then she had the audacity to put her feet on the polished black vinyl of his seat. He literally had to do a double take to make sure he was actually seeing her dusty boots resting on top of his seat back between him and Sam. He'd figured that despite what she'd said earlier, that she was probably pissed at him and that was why she was being a thorn in his side now, but she loved this car. She'd even said so. It had never even occurred to him that she would be angry enough at him to take it out on his car.

Dean shoved at her feet, "Hey, watch the seats."

Ty rolled her eyes and pulled her feet back, pushing herself up straighter in her seat again. She could see Dean watching her in the rearview mirror so she blew another bubble at his reflection.

Dean nearly growled in response, settling instead for pressing down harder on the gas. This was going to be an awfully long drive and Dean pitied any patrolmen stupid enough to pull him over on the way.

Luckily, they avoided any run-ins with the law and arrived at the Roadhouse around dinner-time. There were more cars around than usually were present when Sam and Dean stopped by, indicating that this was the busy time for Ellen's bar. Looking over the other vehicles in the lot as he looked for a spot, Dean guessed at which ones belonged to hunters. Given the prevalence of beat-up looking pick-ups not unlike the one his dad used to drive before he was forced to abandon it during the face-off with Meg, Dean assumed that most of them were probably in the same line of business as they were. Glancing back discretely at Ty, Dean hoped there wouldn't be any trouble. Fighting burly bikers and moronic Ducati-owners was one thing, fighting hunters was a whole other world of trouble. Plus, Dean was anything but keen on pissing off Ellen. That lady could get scary.

Dean parked the car finally and all three hunters were more than happy to get out of the car after their long, arduous journey.

"So, this is the Roadhouse, huh?" Ty asked, stepping back so that she could take in the structure.

"Yep." Dean nodded, watching her carefully.

Ty caught him looking and smiled innocently, "Don't worry, Dean. I promise I'll be on my best behavior. Cross my heart."

Her words should have been reassuring, but her hand tracing an X across her chest was distracting, drawing Dean's eyes downwards and his mind away from his concerns. Ty's smile widened at Dean's reaction and she moved past him, bumping him with her shoulder. Dean blinked quickly before spinning around to follow her. Sam cast his eyes heavenward before falling in after him.

"Dude, grow up." he commented.

"Shut up, Sam."

Sam just smirked in response.

The interior of the Roadhouse was the same as two days prior when Sam and Dean were there last. The main difference again being, of course, the people scattered around the room, occupying bar stools and tables or just standing around. Their weapons were obvious to trained eyes, ranging from sharp-edged to semi-automatic. Ellen was in her normal spot behind the bar. She looked up to see who the new arrivals were, nodding at Sam and Dean. She then took in the new arrival, looking Ty over as Ty cast her own eyes around the bar. Ellen's eyes found Dean's and Dean nodded in reply. Yes, this was the girl that was causing so much trouble.

Dean caught sight of Ash chatting with a young man wearing a beaten denim jacket. Dean's lips quirked slightly at the sight of the charismatic and surprisingly brilliant barfly. He liked Ash and his easy attitude, but he especially enjoyed how much Ash's genius threw Sam off. Anytime someone with a mullet explained to his admittedly bright little brother what MIT was...well, that was a Kodak moment in Dean's book.

Dean next turned his attention to the other side of the room and his jaw nearly dropped when he saw who was carrying a tray of empty drinks back to the bar.

"Jo?" he asked in surprise.

The cute, young blonde turned, a smile gracing her lips as she saw the two brothers and lingering as she focused on Dean, "Hey, stranger."

Dean grinned and moved over to join her. Jo placed her tray onto the bar and waited for him, still smiling slightly.

"Hey." Dean greeted her, pausing near her, uncertain as to what type of footing the two of them were currently on.

"You look...good." Jo admitted, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Yeah, you, too." Dean nodded, "Little surprised to see you back here."

Jo rolled her eyes, "Yeah, me, too. I don't know. Mom called me real late two nights ago and we talked...you know, I don't know how she does it, but..."

"You're telling me." Dean nodded, completely understanding Ellen's freaky powers of persuasion.

"Hey, who's the blonde?"

Dean glanced to the side to see Ty sidling up next to him. He was a little surprised by how she leaned into his side almost possessively. And there was really no mistaking her body language towards Jo: hands on hips, eyes shining with a challenge.

"Uh...Ty this is Jo. Jo, Ty." Dean said, keeping his voice as neutral as possible.

Neither girl made any move to shake hands or really do anything but continue to stare each other down. Dean shifted uncomfortably.

"Ty? Hmmm, aren't you that girl everyone keeps telling me about? The one who almost gets wasted on every hunt she goes on?" Jo asked.

"Jo..." Dean attempted.

"What would you know about hunting, Barbie?" Ty returned with a raised eyebrow.

"Ty, she..." Dean tried again.

"I know enough to keep my ass out of the line of fire." Jo snapped.

"Uh...Jo..." Dean began to remind her about their hunt together in Chicago.

"Yeah, I'm sure your ass is far from any danger." Ty agreed, "Planted in a hunter's lap is more like it. Tell me, do you pretend they're Dean?"

"Ty!" Dean protested.

Where the hell had all this hostility come from? They'd just met for Christ's sake!

Dean saw it coming, but could do nothing to stop it. He watched as Jo tensed and her fist flew at Ty's face. He winced, knowing that Jo's punches hurt like hell despite her size. But somehow, Ty was able to move fast enough and avoid the blow. Dean almost couldn't believe it, but Ty dodged to the left, allowing Jo's fist to sail over her shoulder, then rebounded and smashed her own fist into Jo's right eye.

"Shit!" Dean exclaimed, "Best behavior, my ass!"

Wrapping his arms around Ty's waist, Dean hauled her off her feet and away from Jo. Unfortunately, Jo wasn't exactly down for the count yet. With a furious shout, she launched herself at Ty. Ty, of course, fought Dean's hold, more than willing to fight her. Cursing, Dean turned his back so that his body was between the two.

"Sam!" he shouted.

Sam was already moving. He, like everyone else in the bar, had seen the fight erupt. He grabbed Jo around the waist, capturing in the same hold Dean had Ty in and pulling her in the opposite direction.

"What the hell is going on?" Ellen demanded over Ty and Jo's screamed insults.

"We're going, we're going!" Dean shouted back, dragging Ty outside, literally kicking and screaming.

Once outside, Dean released Ty, shoving her away from the entrance. Ty stumbled forward, straightening slowly and standing rigidly with her back to Dean and the bar.

"What the hell was that?" Dean demanded, glancing between her and the site of his latest headache.

Ty just shrugged.

"What could you possibly have against Jo? You just freaking met her!" Dean continued, his anger increasing with her refusal to answer.

Ty spun around, stalking over to Dean until they were mere inches apart.

"Sorry, Dean. I guess I have a problem with that little bitch coming onto you."

Dean almost shouted another question at her before her answer sunk in, causing him to snap his mouth shut. Ty was jealous? That was nuts! Okay, so maybe he'd been into Jo before, but...that wasn't the point! It wasn't like he went around clocking every guy she talked to...that guy with the Ducati was totally different! But, he did have to admit that two girls fighting over him was kind of hot. Okay, really hot.

Dean's thoughts ran away with him for a moment as he imagined how the fight could have progressed. There would definitely have been some ripping of clothes and probably some wrestling. Why had he broken that up again? Oh, yes, because he had to. Letting them fight over him would be wrong.

"Oh." was the reply that ultimately made it out of his mouth.

Ty laughed at his reaction. Smirking up at him, she fisted her hand in his shirt and yanked his mouth down to hers. Dean wasn't about to fight her, instead matching her force and violence by fisting a hand in her hair and forcing her head back further.

"Winchester!"

Dean flinched and jumped away from Ty, feeling like he'd been caught raiding the cookie jar. He offered Ellen an embarrassed, guilty and apologetic smile. Ellen seemed impervious to the effects of his expression, however, and continued to level a smoldering look at him and the girl at his side. Dean snuck a look at Ty out of the corner of his eye. She looked bored and unconcerned. Dean closed his eyes and took a deep breath, knowing her attitude was only going to make this worse.

Ellen stalked closer to the pair, stopping in front of Dean. She glanced angrily at Ty one more time before focusing on him.

"I don't know what that was all about," Ellen growled, "but if I find out that you've been playing both sides with my daughter..."

"No!" Dean yelped immediately, shaking his head furiously, "I mean, I haven't! I'm not!"

Ellen continued to stare Dean down, apparently measuring his seriousness. Finally, she backed off, "Make sure it stays that way."

"Yes, ma'am." Dean nodded.

"And you," Ellen turned to Ty, "fights aren't allowed in my bar. Especially with my daughter."

"Whatever." Ty replied, rolling her eyes.

Ellen's expression darkened at Ty's dismissal, "You've got a bad attitude. Check it or stay out of my bar."

"Yes, ma'am." Ty echoed Dean with much less sincerity, tacking on a mocking two-fingered salute.

Ellen continued to glare at her, but didn't say anything else. Slowly, she backed up, then turned and headed back into the bar. As she was heading in, Sam came out. Seeing the look on Ellen's face, he gave her a wide berth.

Dean let out the breath he'd been holding as Sam approached.

"Wow." Sam commented as he joined them, glancing back towards the bar entrance where Ellen had disappeared back inside.

"No shit." Dean nodded. Collecting himself, he turned to Ty, "You almost got me decked in the face by Ellen!"

Ty flicked her hair back over her shoulder and shrugged, "Sorry. Authority figures bore me."

"Ellen's not an authority figure, she's a friend and so is Jo." Sam reproached her.

"Not mine." Ty argued.

"Yeah, evidently." Dean agreed, clenching his teeth, "Look, you want another hunt or not? 'Cause if you do, pissing off the source of our information is a pretty stupid way to go about it."

"Yeah, alright." Ty reluctantly acquiesced, making a face, "Sam, why don't you go back in, apologize to Blondie for me, and see what they've got? I should probably stay out here."

Sam nodded and headed back inside. The moment Sam was out of sight, Ty whirled back around to face Dean, shoving him back against the nearest truck.

"Hey." Dean protested as his back connected with the metal siding of the cab.

Ty didn't give him a chance to say any more. She molded her body to his, reinitiating their kiss from earlier.

"Thought they'd never leave." she breathed against his jaw line a moment later, "Let's ditch 'em."

"Woah. We can't leave Sammy." Dean protested.

"Why not?" Ty asked, pulling away to grin at him, "You've ditched Sam for me before."

"True." Dean acknowledged, tilting his head to one side as he thought about that, "But I shouldn't."

Ty pouted, hooking her fingers through the belt loops of his jeans and pulling him towards her, "Come on, Dean. I thought you were a bad boy."

Dean allowed her to pull him forward, but looked torn. He glanced back at the bar, then back at Ty and bit his lip.

"We'll come back for him." she reassured him.

"Okay." Dean relented.

Grin widening, Ty leaned back in to capture Dean's mouth again. Dean wondered in the back of his mind about the turn around in Ty's mood. Yesterday she'd said they were over, today she'd annoyed the hell out of him, which he'd thought she'd been doing because she was still mad, and now she was practically jumping him. Little odd, even for Ty.

And yet, Dean was a little too distracted to care too much at the moment. Maybe later.

Ty broke the kiss off abruptly, spinning around and heading for the car. She glanced over her shoulder at Dean, a seductive grin on her lips. Dean stared for a moment before he sprang after her.

Unlike the last time Dean had ditched Sam for Ty when the drive away from the bar had been silent except for the radio and a little awkward, this time Ty only waited for Dean to start the car and apply his foot to the gas pedal before she slid over next to him on the seat and began kissing his neck and his ear. Her hand was warm on his upper thigh, making him uncomfortably aware of its placement. Dean cleared his throat and fidgeted in his seat, finding it increasingly hard to focus on the road what with Ty's distractions. He was about ready to just pull over on the side of the road and have hot, crazy sex right there in the car (for safety's sake, really), but a cheap motel came into view on the left. He pulled the car into the parking lot and screeched to a stop. He may have been taking up two spots, but he really didn't care. It was going to be hard enough to make it through booking a room, he'd be damned if he spent any more time on parking.

Dean kicked the door open and pulled Ty out the driver's side with him. Once free of the car, he pushed the door closed and then pushed her up against it, planting a searing kiss on her lips to let her know just how he felt about her almost making him drive off the road on the way there. After a good minute, he reluctantly pulled away and turned to head for the motel office before things got any more heated. He'd barely managed to move a step in that direction, however, when Ty caught his hand and yanked him back towards her. He raised an eyebrow at her in question and she smirked up at him with a rebellious gleam in her eyes.

"Seems a waste of money to pay for a whole night, doesn't it?" she whispered, "Especially when you're so good at picking locks."

Dean had to admit that this sudden mischievous streak of hers wasn't exactly unattractive. He knew he should probably be some sort of voice of reason, point out to her that considering the credit card scams he was running, it wasn't like he was really paying for the room anyway. But, he just couldn't find the will to argue with her. There was something extremely exciting about skirting the edge of the law and if he got to have sex while committing a few minor crimes...well, where was the down side? He'd broken bigger laws for less. What was one more B and E?

"If that's how you want it, sweetheart." Dean drawled in reply, the corner of his own lips twisting upwards in an answering smirk.

Dean kissed her quickly one more time before leading her around the back of the motel, away from the office and clear view of the road. Chances were that if they acted natural and no one actually saw him pick the lock, everyone would just assume they already had a room here. Of course, peaking in the windows of the motel rooms probably wasn't the best way to act like he belonged, but he had to be fairly certain they weren't going to walk in on anyone. Once Dean had selected a room that seemed to fit the bill, he sent Ty a look before crouching near the door. She nodded in reply, moving back the way they'd come a few feet so that she could stand look-out in case anyone came that way.

Considering his highly aroused state, Dean considered it something of an achievement that he managed to unlock the door in about a minute. His time was usually better, but then there was usually more blood traveling to his upstairs brain, too.

Hearing the door whine slightly as it opened, Ty spun back around and hurried back to Dean, grabbing his shirt with both hands and dragging him into the room with her. Dean pushed the door closed after them, barely waiting for the click as it closed completely before shoving Ty's jacket off her shoulders. His hot kisses warmed cold exposed skin as she wiggled her arms free of the offensive material. As soon as her jacket fell free of her hands, Ty grabbed Dean's shirt again and tugged it over his head, throwing it aside. Her hands splayed against the muscles of his chest, pushing him backwards until he reached the bed and fell back onto it. Climbing onto the mattress after him, Ty straddled Dean's lap.

"You know, Dean," Ty began, slowly leaning down towards him, "you never told me that hunting was such a rush."

Dean didn't reply, but just watched her as she nipped at his chest before continuing on her way up his body.

"Come on. Admit it. You like it, too, don't you?" she demanded, finally eye-to-eye with him, propped up over him with her hands pressed into the mattress on either side of his head.

"Yeah, sure, it's great, but...uh...I've got something else in mind right now that I like a whole lot more." Dean answered with a snide smile, reaching up to pull her down to him.

Ty pushed his hand away, sitting back up again with a frown on her face.

"Don't be a smart ass, Dean." she snapped. She started again, that seductive, teasing smile back, "Tell me about it. Tell me you like how it feels."

Ty punctuated her demand with a grind of her hips that made Dean groan. Ty's smile widened.

"It's good to live just the wrong side of the law, isn't it, Dean? Make the rules up as you go. Life's so much more exciting that way, knowing you're that far away from the grave." Ty grinned, holding up two fingers scarcely an inch apart.

Dean paused, "No wonder I turned you into a suicidal maniac."

Ty rolled her eyes, "Who wants to live forever anyway?"

"And now you're quoting Freddy Mercury. Serious problems."

Ty grabbed Dean's hands and guided them to her back, letting him pull her down close. Her lips almost brushing his, she met his gaze again, "Dean, you know you and I aren't the growing old type. So why not have a little fun?"

With that she pressed another kiss upon him.

"You make a valid point." Dean remarked as she pulled away, grinning up at her.

"I knew you'd see things my way." Ty agreed.


	6. Chapter 6

A/N: Okay, first off I need to clarify something that may be a bit confusing. This story is AU due to how things played out in the first fic. The boys survived the semi crash, John didn't die, YED was killed, and therefore a lot of stuff in Season 2 is different or didn't happen at all. Because of this, if I don't explicitly reference something that happened in Season 2, assume it didn't happen in this world. Secondly, I'm not entirely sure about this chapter. It was harder to right for some reason and I'm not sure how much I like it. If you have any comments or suggestions, please let me know. I'll try to get another chapter done soon (you'll probably see what exactly is wrong with Ty in the next chapter). Lyrics are Aerosmith's "Livin' on the Edge." Thanks to everyone who reviewed last time!

Chapter Six: Fallin'

_There's somethin' wrong with the world today  
I don't know what it is  
Something's wrong with our eyes  
We're seein' things in a different way  
And God knows it ain't his  
It shore ain't no surprise  
Livin' on the edge  
Livin' on the edge  
Livin' on the edge  
Livin' on the edge  
There's somethin' wrong with the world today  
The light bulb's gettin dim  
There's meltdown in the sky  
If you can judge a wise man  
By the color of his skin  
Then mister you're a better man than I  
Livin' on the edge  
You can't help yourself from fallin'  
Livin' on the edge  
You can't help yourself at all  
Livin' on the edge  
You can't stop yourself from fallin'  
Livin' on the edge  
Tell me what you think about your sit-u-a-tion  
Complication - aggravation  
Is getting to you  
If chicken little tells you that the sky is fallin'  
Even if it wasn't would you still come crawlin'  
Back again  
I bet you would my friend  
Again & again & again & again & again  
Something right with the world today  
And everybody knows it's wrong  
But we can tell 'em no or we could let it go  
But I'd would rather be a hanging on  
Livin' on the edge_

It was over an hour later when Ty and Dean drove back up the street to get Sam. When Dean pulled the car into the dirt lot, Sam was sitting outside the roadhouse, waiting for them. Ty had seen Sam look pouty before, but now he looked down right pissed. His lips were pursed, his hair hung in his eyes, but did nothing to disguise the flash of annoyance in them, and his hands clenched at his sides. Ty glanced at Dean, flashing him an unrepentant grin. Dean rolled his eyes in response. He took a deep breath and stretched the muscles in his neck by leaning his head to each side before exiting the car and going to face his brother. Sam was already standing near Dean's door before Dean was fully out of the car.

"Where the hell have you been?" Sam demanded.

"We had to..." Dean began.

"You left me with a very pissed off Ellen and an even more pissed off Jo." Sam cut him off, glaring angrily.

Dean glanced away guiltily before trying again, "Yeah, sorry about that. We..."

"Dude, do you have any idea...?" Sam started yelling again.

"Chill out, Sam." Ty interrupted with a hint of impatience coloring her voice.

Sam's gaze snapped up, looking over the car at Ty incredulously. Ty flipped her hair back over her shoulder absently, not even looking at Sam.

"What?" Sam asked, wondering if maybe he'd imagined her comment.

"It's not the end of the world, Sam." Ty said with a sigh. She glanced over the car at Sam and looked him over quickly, "You seem to have survived okay. Now, do we have a hunt or not?"

Sam stood frozen for a moment. Usually when he got pissed off, Dean at least let him yell for a bit and get it out of his system. And Ty usually took his side, but now she seemed completely unconcerned.

"I got a hunt."

An unfamiliar voice caused all three hunters to jerk around towards the source of the sound, instantly on the defensive. A figure strode towards them, separating himself from the dark shadows of the parking lot and moving into the light coming from the front of the roadhouse. Dean recognized the guy in the denim jacket who'd been talking to Ash earlier, but didn't immediately lower his guard. Dean figured the guy was probably a hunter, he had the look of one, but that didn't necessarily make him one of the good guys, as their encounters with Gordon, the crazed hunter who'd decided that Sam was something to be hunted on account the rumors of his supposed destiny that had somehow gotten around, had proved. Dean had tried to explain to the guy that the yellow-eyed demon was gone, that the whole dark side prophecy was complete shit anyway, but that hunter had been off the deep end.

"Yeah? Who are you?" Dean demanded, refusing to lower the gun he had instinctively drawn.

The young man smiled, holding up his hands and stopping where he was. He looked from one hunter facing him to the next. Dean and Sam had their guns trained on him, but Ty was looking him up and down with an intrigued smile, her gun dangling loosely at her side. This new guy was definitely not unattractive. He had longer dark hair that spiked a little in the front, was roughly the same height as Dean although slightly trimmer and wore an innocent-looking face that was spoiled by a mischievous glint in his eyes. Those same brown eyes caught Ty's for a moment and she flashed him a smile.

"I asked you a question." Dean snapped.

The intruder ripped his gaze from Ty's and looked back to Dean, "Sorry. Name's Alex, Alex Flynn."

Alex's gaze kept flickering back to Ty and he finally gave up trying not to turn his attention to her instead of Dean and asked, "Are you really that girl in Arizona that everyone keeps talking about?"

Ty shook her head and spread her hands with a bemused look on her face, "I guess."

"Hey!" Dean snapped, clearly aggravated at the lack of attention he was receiving, even with a gun pointed at this guy, "New kid! You're obviously a hunter, or at least think you are, if you're hanging around here. What's your deal?"

"My deal?" Alex repeated, looking amused at Dean's word choice, "Well, I guess 'my deal' is that I've got a hunt I think I could use some help on and Ash said you Winchesters were the guys for the job."

"Ash said that?" Dean asked.

Alex nodded.

Dean slowly lowered his gun, stowing it back in the waist of his jeans almost reluctantly. Sam followed suit, glancing silently between his brother and the newcomer.

"What's the hunt?" Ty asked, not bothering to disguise her enthusiasm.

"Well," Alex smiled confidently at Ty and moved closer, "that's kind of the problem. I'm still kind of new at this gig and judging from the body count on this, I think I might be in over my head."

"Great, another amateur." Dean groaned.

"Shut up, Dean." Ty snapped over her shoulder.

She leaned back against the car, still smiling invitingly. Alex returned the look, stopping only a pace or two from Ty. Dean glared over the car at both of them. Sam frowned, not enjoying this turn of events and the tension that had resulted.

"High body count, huh?" Ty asked, sliding her eyes up Alex's form until she was holding his gaze.

"Yeah. I think fourteen so far." he nodded.

"Nice." Ty commented with a raised brow, "Demonic?"

"Could be."

"Sounds like fun."

Alex's smile widened at the look on Ty's face and he slowly edged a couple inches closer.

Dean cleared his throat, revealing his presence next to the pair who apparently hadn't even noticed that he'd moved, and Alex jumped slightly, moving back a step. Dean scowled at him, glaring him back another step before he moved between them in close to Ty, standing over her and turning his back to Alex.

"Ty?" he questioned in a low tone.

"Yes, Dean?" Ty asked, glancing up at him, barely containing a pleased smirk.

"Could you try not volunteering us for things?"

Ty shrugged, "Thought we were looking for a hunt."

"Yeah, but not this one."

"Why not?" Ty asked, feigning innocence, "I thought we were in the hunting evil biz. Who knows, maybe this is one of those demons your Dad's worried about?"

Dean shifted his weight from one foot to the other as if seeking an escape route. He finally let out an aggravated growl and whirled around to face Alex.

"Alright, fine. We'll take your damn hunt. You can stay here."

"What?" Alex protested, "No way! This is my hunt. I've been following this thing, doing all the legwork. I'm coming with."

"You said you wanted our help. This is us helping." Dean replied.

"Funny." Alex commented with a sneer, "I'm serious."

"So am I." Dean answered, his voice devoid of its usual humor.

"Boys!" Ty interrupted the posturing, forcing her way between them and pushing them further apart with each hand, "Can't we play nice?"

"I'm not taking another freaking rookie out to nearly get killed. I'm only one guy. How many people you expect me to save in one hunt?"

"Dean," Ty smiled gently, turning her full attention to him. She reached a hand up to play with the hairs on the back of Dean's head, "I'm sure our attractive new friend is perfectly capable of taking care of himself."

Dean's eyes narrowed as he glared at her, "You're using sexy voice. Stop using sexy voice."

"That's not what you said an hour ago." Ty pointed out.

"Eww! I did _not_ need to hear that!" Sam cried in disgust.

"Shut up, Sam." Dean called over his shoulder, "Yeah, but an hour ago, the situation was a bit different. For one, we were naked."

"Dude, mental image!" Sam exclaimed, "I can only repress so much!"

"Um...still here." Alex added, raising a hand.

"We know." Dean said dismissively over Ty's head.

"Dean." Ty whined, "Please? I think it'd be fun having someone else along. Besides," Ty leaned in closer to Dean and dropped her voice to a whisper, "having him along will make it a whole lot easier to get rid of Sam every once in awhile."

Dean sighed extravagantly so everyone would know just how much he was being put out on this one.

"Alright, fine. But you owe me. With interest." Dean looked past her to Alex, "And we take point on this and you do what we say."

Alex shrugged, "Fine by me."

"Where is this hunt?" Sam asked.

"North Dakota. Town a little south of Fargo called Horace."

"Swell." Dean quipped, "Try to keep up."

"No problem." Alex replied, mock-saluting Dean before he retreated into the shadows.

Ty watched him leave, following him with her eyes. When he was out of sight, she looked back up at Dean to find him scowling again.

"Cheer up, Dean." Ty told him, pushing herself off the car and closer to Dean, "We've got a hunt."

Ty punctuated her statement by kissing Dean passionately on the lips. Dean kissed her back, wrapping an arm around her back and yanking her closer. Sam rolled his eyes and climbed in the backseat, deciding that riding in the back would be easier than trying to get past those two and in the passenger side. With any luck, they'd let him sleep through most of the drive to North Dakota. Ty's behavior still bothered Sam. He expected Dean to act that way, but not Ty. She'd always been a little more self-conscious the last time she'd traveled with them, reluctant to even wear a short skirt. Sam supposed it was possible that gaining more experience in hunting had given her more confidence in general, but he still couldn't shake his gut feeling that something about Ty wasn't right. Frowning to himself once again as he settled into the back seat, Sam resolved to volunteer to get coffee in the morning or something and use that opportunity to test Ty, if nothing else, to ease his own mind. Besides, if things proved to be as sinister as Sam was hoping they weren't, Bobby didn't live too far from this hunt and Sam knew he could always turn to him for help if he needed.

Ty and Dean eventually separated and Dean moved back around the car to get in behind the wheel. The pair plopped down onto the front bench-seat with damn near identical grins on their face. Sam rolled his eyes again.

"Hey, Bonnie and Clyde. Can we go?" Sam prodded impatiently.

"Yeah, yeah, we're going." Dean replied, starting the car and steering it out onto the highway.

An old Ford pickup followed them. Watching it in the rearview mirror, Dean couldn't help but reflect on Ty's attitude towards this Alex guy. The thing with the idiot with the Ducati, Dean could kind of understand. Ty had been pissed at him. She'd wanted to get back at him, make him mad. But with this new guy...Dean couldn't figure out why she'd been flirting with him. She wasn't mad at him as far as he knew. Hell, they'd just returned from some amazing extra curricular activities. Maybe she _was_ still mad, still hung up on the Jo thing. Girls were like that sometimes, stubbornly refusing to let things go. And God knew that Ty was stubborn to a fault. Dean sighed a little, figuring that must be it.

Ty meanwhile, oblivious or unconcerned by the speculation concerning her that was going through both Winchester brothers' minds, stared out the window at the passing night. While both boys had frowns tugging at their lips, Ty was smiling. As far as she was concerned, things were definitely looking up.

After some time with each passenger in the Impala lost in their own thoughts, Sam succumbed to sleep, stretched out as much as he could in the back seat considering his large frame. Dean glanced back at him and smiled, glad that his brother was getting some rest. The poor kid still suffered from nightmares with a much more regular frequency than Dean would like. Turning his attention to Ty, Dean wondered for a second if she was asleep, too. She'd been quiet for awhile and was curled up on her side of the seat, leaning against the passenger door. However, feeling the weight of Dean's eyes on her, Ty looked over at him, proving she was still awake.

"What?" she asked,

"Nothing." Dean shook his head, "You should get some sleep."

"Not really tired just yet." Ty replied.

"Can I ask you something?" Dean ventured, eyes back on the road.

"Shoot."

"If something was wrong, would you tell me?"

"What do you mean, Dean?" Ty asked carefully.

Dean's eyes caught hers for a second before he turned them back to the highway. Ty carefully inspected his face for a moment, before she slowly replied, "I'm fine, Dean."

Dean didn't say anything to question her statement, but he looked skeptical.

"No, seriously. I am." Ty insisted, "What could be wrong? I've got a hunt to work on and a cute guy with a nice car to occupy me in the meantime."

Ty punctuated her statement with a devilish grin and Dean couldn't say that he was opposed to her view of things, but something was still bothering him. Something told him that he was missing something, that she was covering.

"Why? Is something bothering you, Dean?" Ty queried when Dean didn't respond to her comment.

Dean looked hard at Ty one more time, looking for physical proof of whatever it was that he sensed, but she looked fine, looking back at him with wide questioning eyes. With a sigh, Dean shook his head, "Nope. Nothing."

Ty nodded, a smile ghosting across her lips, "Good."

Settling herself more comfortably into her seat, Ty stifled a yawn.

"You know, maybe I will take a nap. Wake me up if you want me to drive for a bit."

"Not a chance." Dean replied automatically.

Ty rolled her eyes at him before closing them. That same hint of a grin graced her features as she drifted off to sleep, a grin that struck Dean as a bit odd. It seemed almost...devious. Like she knew something he didn't and wasn't telling. Dean shifted uncomfortably in his seat, wondering where these thoughts were coming from and trying to dispel them from his mind. This drive was already taking too long.

Dean drove in undisturbed silence except for the low intonations of the radio until the sun shown through the windshield, causing his two passengers to stir. In typical Winchester fashion, Dean had covered an impressive distance overnight, bringing them inside the North Dakotan border. Although tired, Dean preferred to do the driving and let his brother sleep rather than wake him up in order to catch an hour or two of fitful rest. He was used to it anyway. Although, at this point, he was in need of some good, strong coffee and thankfully, a sign about a mile back along the highway advertised a diner and truck stop approaching.

"Where are we?" Sam mumbled sleepily, pushing himself back into a seated position in the back seat.

"Uh...about an hour or two from Horace." Dean replied, smiling at the image his brother presented, hair even messier and more in his face than usual.

Dean took the next exit off the highway and pulled into the dirt lot surrounding the diner. Parking the car, Dean transferred his affectionate gaze to Ty, who was slowly waking up, stretching her limbs as much as the confines of the car would allow. She blinked blearily at him before glancing around at her surroundings.

As the trio exited the car and stretched their legs after the long drive, a beat-up pick-up truck parked next to them, causing Dean's smile to disappear. He'd almost forgotten about the newest and most unwelcome pain in his ass.

"Don't make too many pit stops, do you?" Alex commented.

"No. Why? The drive a little rough for you?" Dean asked disdainfully.

"Nah, I'm alright." Alex replied cheerfully, ignoring Dean's tone, "Starving, though."

"Mmm, me, too." Ty agreed as she reached her arms over her head and stretched one final time.

Dean's frown deepened. It didn't escape his notice that once again this Alex guy had chosen to approach from the side of the car that Ty was on, putting his beloved Impala between Dean and Sam and this new guy and Ty. He was also entirely aware of the way Alex's eyes dropped from Ty's face when she stretched.

Dean skirted the car quickly, wrapping an arm around Ty's waist and steering her away from Alex and towards the diner, "Let's get you some breakfast, then. Come on, Sam."

Dean glanced back at Alex out of the corner of his eye as they walked away. He shrugged and stuck his hands in his pockets, trailing after them, outwardly unconcerned by the hostile vibes Dean was resonating.

Inside the restaurant, the sparse occupancy was mostly trucker types. They glanced up as the hunters entered, then turned back to their breakfast.

"Hey, there!" a slim, middle-aged blonde woman with her hair in a tight pony-tail called from behind the counter, "Have a seat anywhere, folks. I'll be right with you."

Following her instructions, Dean guided Ty towards a booth by a window. They slide in one side and Sam plopped in across from them. Alex approached last, pausing by the table until Sam scooted over to make room for him. The silence that followed was stifling.

"Coffee?"

All four hunters almost jumped at the cheerful voice of the diner waitress, approaching their table with a pot of hot coffee. They all also agreed quickly, flipping their cups over so that the waitress could fill them. The waitress, whose name tag read Amanda, poured them each a cup, then reached in her apron for menus. Dean waved them aside, placing an order for a short stack of pancakes, scrambled eggs and bacon, which was echoed by everyone else at the table. Amanda nodded quickly, not bothering to write anything down and retreated to the kitchen to place the order. After she left, the hunters each pulled their coffee cups to them. Sam paused as he was about to reach for a packet of sugar, looking at Ty sipping her coffee black.

"I thought you didn't like coffee." he said, recalling when he and Ty had breakfast in Colorado, she'd been rather insistent about her distaste for it.

"Who me?" Ty asked over her cup, "There's nothing better than a nice hot cup of black coffee."

"Amen." Dean agreed, taking a long drink from his own cup.

"I don't know." Alex commented, reaching past Sam for sugar and creamer, "I like it a little sweeter."

Ty raised her eyebrows at Alex. In reply, he raised his cup to her before taking a drink. Sam wished he had the opportunity to spike her coffee with the holy water that was still in his jacket, but there was no way he'd have the opportunity unless for some reason everyone at the table left. The more he watched Ty, the more convinced he was that she wasn't the same girl he remembered from before. One second she was making eyes at Alex and the next she was leaning into Dean, whispering something in his ear. This from the girl who'd admittedly been out of her league when it came to seducing a carnie.

"So what's up with this hunt?" Sam asked Alex to distract himself from the problem of Ty.

"Well," Alex answered, setting down his drink, "I'm having trouble nailing the pattern. At first I thought it was targeting people at this one hotel, but then new deaths cropped up from people who'd never even been there. That's when I figured it was too random to be a spirit."

"How does it kill them?" Ty asked, leaning forward with interest.

"First couple was pegged as a double suicide. They fell from the roof of a five story building. Next few were found dead in their rooms with massive coronaries. Then they got kind of gruesome."

"What makes you think they're all connected?" Dean wondered, intrigued despite himself.

"That's the thing. There's no obvious connections. Nothing the authorities would catch, anyway. Except that when I went back and checked all the scenes again, there was sulfur." Alex revealed. He frowned, "It's almost like the damn thing got bored."

"So what are the police saying about all the deaths?" Sam asked.

"Freak accidents, domestic disputes, robberies gone wrong. You name it, the police have sold it. I don't know if they actually believe the crap they're feeding the papers or if someone on that side is looking at them all together, too, and wondering what the hell is going on." Alex admitted.

He stopped from saying any more because the waitress was coming back with their food. She placed a plate heaped with delicious-smelling food in front of each hunter, refilled their coffee cups, then retreated to her spot behind the counter with a smile. The group left off their argument by silent mutual agreement in order to wolf down their breakfasts.

Pushing away the remnants left on her plate, Ty leaned back in her seat, "I think maybe we should stay at this hotel where everything started. Who knows, maybe it'll come back?"

"Place still open?" Dean asked.

Alex nodded.

"Great." Dean said, wiping his hands on a napkin and tossing it down on his plate, "Let's go."

Dean strode over to the counter and paid their tab, while the others moved towards the door.

"So, Alex," Sam ventured, "you said you're new to all this?"

"Well, yeah. Why?"

Sam shrugged, "Just wondering how you got into this gig."

Alex sighed, sticking his arms in his pockets again, "Sort of a family thing, I guess."

Sam was about to ask him to elaborate, but Dean returned and Alex took one look at him before immediately taking off out the door.

"Did I miss something?" Dean asked.

"Nothing important." Ty replied, leaning against Dean, "Come on. Sooner we get a hotel room, sooner I can get you in a nice, warm bed."

"Alright, now that sounds like a plan." Dean grinned, hands sliding down Ty's back.

"God, not in public." Sam complained, pushing past them and out the door.

Dean's grin widened as he pulled away from Ty and followed his brother. Ty trailed after him, looking rather pleased with herself, as well. With her suggestion in mind, Dean traveled fast, urging Alex to drive faster by riding his tail. Regardless, it was still about another hour when Alex turned into the drive of a large hotel. The town itself was not extremely well-populated, but this hotel was five stories and not entirely unimpressive to look at. Dean supposed it must be the proximity to Fargo. Tourists and the like could stay at this nice rural hotel outside the city, enjoy the views while still being within driving distance of everything else. And yet, the impression Dean had of the place was that it must be pricey.

"Uh...guys?" Dean said, looking up at the hotel through the windshield after he'd parked the car, "I don't think I've got the cash for three rooms here. I'm going to have to use a credit card."

"So what?" Ty shrugged.

"So, I've been trying to avoid using credit cards ever since I made the FBI's most wanted list." Dean replied.

"What?" Ty exclaimed, scrambling to sit up straighter in her seat, "Why the hell didn't you tell me?"

Dean looked sheepish, "Uh...didn't come up?"

"What? The fact that you're on the lam didn't seem relevant to you?" Ty shrieked, punching Dean in the shoulder.

"Those are probably words you shouldn't be yelling." Dean observed.

"There's some FBI agent who's been on our tail because of a couple shape-shifter jobs that went a little sideways. First one took Dean's shape and got him pegged for a few homicides before he was found dead. We thought that was the end of it until we had a run-in with the law and they found out that Dean's not actually dead. Then, this second shape-shifter hunt happened..." Sam explained.

"To make a long story short, we've got to try and stay as far off the radar as possible." Dean interrupted.

Ty took a deep breath, gaze going heavenward, "Alright. So you fucked up royally and got the feds on your tail."

"Hey!" Dean protested.

Ty ignored him and continued to talk to herself, "That's okay. Not the end of the world. I've got a little cash. I'm sure Alex has some. We can hustle in the meantime." Ty lowered her gaze to Dean's face and flashed him a smile, "Besides, I'm sure we don't need three rooms. We're all adults, some of us can share."

"Oh, you are so not sharing with that loser." Dean immediately objected.

"That's not what I was suggesting." Ty answered. She glanced sideways at Sam, "You wouldn't mind, would you, Sam?"

"Not being in the room with you two sounds like a great idea." Sam nodded, making a disgusted face.

"That's my boy." Dean grinned, grabbing the door handle and pushing open the door, "Don't worry. I'll tell you all the juicy details later."

"Gross!" Sam exclaimed, clamping his hands over his ears as if to stop that from happening.

Dean chuckled in reply, climbing out of the car. Alex was already waiting impatiently for them near the front door, leaning against the building with his arms crossed over his chest. The young hunter's darker complexion was colored with annoyance despite his relaxed position.

"About time." he groused as Ty and the Winchesters came to meet him.

"Sorry." Ty said, laying a hand on Alex's arm, "Didn't mean to keep you waiting."

Alex glanced down at the hand on his arm, then up at Ty's face, then past her at Dean. Uncrossing his arms and dropping them to his side so that Ty's hand fell away, he pushed off the building with his foot and moved past her into the building. Ty seemed a little surprised at the brush-off at first, but shrugged it off and followed.

Inside the hotel lobby, the decorations were modest, but nice. Dean felt out of place as he approached the concierge to ask for the rooms. Most of the places he stayed at were flea-bitten motels with interesting looking interior decoration and overweight desk clerks wearing dirty wife-beaters. Dean internally shook off his initial discomfort. Considering the events linked to this hotel recently, they were probably desperate for patrons and wouldn't care what he looked like as long as he could pay the bill.

And, in fact, the concierge did treat Dean civilly, despite the flash of something that crossed his features when he saw him approach in his dusty boots, ripped jeans, and worn leather jacket. In fact, it was really a testament to the guy's professionalism that he didn't even comment when Dean opted to put down the cost of the first night in cash rather than give the guy a card. Within minutes, Dean had two room keys in his hand and was heading back towards the others. Dean noticed that Alex had his back to the concierge and was trying to look inconspicuous behind Sam and Ty. Idiot had probably been through here before and fed the guy some load of bull about him being a detective or something. Dean suppressed an eye roll and a sigh, choosing instead to think about sharing a room with a willing female rather than his brother for a change.

"Here you go, Sam." Dean said, tossing his brother a key and taking Ty's hand, "You two have fun."

Alex's head shot up at that, confusion in his eyes before he realized that Dean and Ty were ditching him and Sam.

"Dean?" Sam questioned as his brother and Ty headed for the stairs to their room.

"Catch up with you in a few hours, Sammy." Dean called over his shoulder.

With that Ty and Dean disappeared into the stairwell. As soon as the door swung closed after them, Ty shoved Dean against a wall and molded her mouth to his in a searing kiss.

"Holy..." Dean exclaimed in between kisses.

Ty chuckled at his exclamation, "Now, Dean. You know that we're both more Hell's Bells than holy anything."

Dean didn't reply, but grabbed Ty's arm and urged her towards the stairs. Dean fully intended to make the most of this short interlude from the job and wasn't about to waste time talking in the stairwell. There was something subtly dissimilar about the heated moments between them although Dean couldn't say what it was. Something just felt different, almost like a growing addiction. Dean almost began to wonder what that meant, but stopped himself, deciding to worry about it later.


	7. Chapter 7

A/N: Sorry again about the delays, but in case you're wondering, my thesis is looking good so far (80 pages, hell yeah!). Anyway, here's the next chapter, the long awaited chapter in which you finally get to the bottom of what's wrong with Ty. Lyrics are from that wonderful song by the Rolling Stones "Paint it Black." Please review. This chapter's really important and I really want it just right.

Chapter Seven: Black

_I see a red door and I want it painted black  
No colors anymore I want them to turn black  
I see the girls walk by dressed in their summer clothes  
I have to turn my head until my darkness goes  
I see a line of cars and they're all painted black  
With flowers and my love both never to come back  
I see people turn their heads and quickly look away  
Like a new born baby it just happens every day  
I look inside myself and see my heart is black  
I see my red door and it has been painted black  
Maybe then Ill fade away and not have to face the facts  
Its not easy facin' up when your whole world is black_

When Dean woke up a few hours later, he swiftly became aware that he was alone in the hotel bed. Dean sat up, blinking the sleep from his eyes and surveyed the room. Light was streaming in through the windows and Ty was nowhere in sight. Dean cocked his head to one side, listening for the sounds of the shower maybe, but the room was completely silent. Dean's brow furrowed slightly as he wondered where she might have gone. Getting out of bed and pulling his clothes back on, Dean quickly double-checked to make sure she wasn't somewhere out of sight before deciding to go see if maybe she had gone to see Sam.

Dean shut the door behind him and pocketed his key before moving down the hall to the room he'd left for Sam and Alex. Reaching the door, he tried the handle and found it open. Frowning slightly at his brother's carelessness, Dean pushed the door open and stepped inside.

Inside the room, Dean found Sam looking through some papers while Alex reclined on the couch, watching the television. Both turned their faces towards him when he entered, near identical questioning expressions on their faces.

"Seen Ty?" Dean asked without any preamble.

Sam shook his head, "She's not with you?"

Alex snorted, causing Dean's head to whip around to glare at him.

"What?" he snapped.

"Nothing." Alex said with raised eyebrows, turning back to the TV, "Just can't believe you managed to lose her is all."

"Hey, shut it, smart ass." Dean growled, "And stay the hell away from Ty, too."

"Yeah, I think I got that memo." Alex replied, rolling his eyes, "But, for the record, she came onto me."

Dean didn't reply, but continued to try to burn a hole in the back of Alex's skull with the force of his glare. Sam cleared his throat loudly, hoping to break the tension. In the few hours that he'd been alone with Alex, the younger hunter had grudgingly offered up some more information about himself and Sam was inclined to give him a little slack, especially considering the Ty situation. He didn't seem like a bad guy and it wasn't his fault that he'd gotten caught up in this mess with the female hunter.

"You know, Alex has done some pretty good research here. Maybe we should just call Ty, see where she is, and get started on this. If Alex's pattern is right, this thing is going to try something again soon." Sam warned.

"Fine. I'll call her." Dean agreed, digging his phone out of his pocket and heading back out of the room.

Sam sent an apologetic look in Alex's direction before getting up to follow his brother. Alex just shrugged, seemingly unconcerned. Sam had to give the younger hunter one thing, he was an even tougher nut to crack than Dean.

The longer the phone rang, the more aggravated Dean became. Where the hell was she? Why would she just disappear like that? Why the hell wasn't she answering her phone?

On the sixth ring, Ty finally picked up, "Hello?"

"Where the hell are you?" Dean demanded.

"Well, good morning, sweetheart." Ty snorted sarcastically, "I'm just outside. Chill out."

"Fine. Stay put. I'll be down in a second." Dean said quickly, his tone clipped, before he hung up abruptly without waiting for her response.

"Is she okay?" Sam asked from behind him.

"Fine." Dean snapped for the third time in the past few minutes as he hurried down the hallway to the stairwell.

Sam hurried after him, concerned about Dean's sudden mood, but knowing Dean would never explain it. Besides, Sam was fairly convinced it has something to do with Ty and, knowing the pair like he did, he was sure that the problem would probably reveal itself soon in the form of some kind of heated argument.

Swiftly traversing the stairs and crossing the hotel lobby, Dean and Sam exited the front doors to find Ty in the parking lot, fussing over a black motorcycle. She looked up when she saw them, a wide smile parting her lips.

"Hey, guys! Isn't she beautiful?"

"What the hell?" Dean demanded, stopping in his tracks. He gestured quickly at the bike, "Where the heck did this come from?"

Ty eyes slide sideways, "I...uh...borrowed it."

Sam took a quick step back from his brother, knowing what kind of reaction that revelation was going to cause.

"You did what?!" Dean yelled, hands tightening into fists at his side.

"Keep it down, will you?" Ty requested, glancing around furtively and patting the air in front of her with her hands.

"Why? Because you decided to steal a freaking motorcycle?" Dean fumed, "Do you have any idea what being on the lam means? Low freaking profile mean anything to you?"

"Oh, right. Like the Impala's inconspicuous." Ty scoffed.

Dean's eyes flashed with anger and he took a heavy step forward, leveling a finger at Ty's face, "You leave her out of this."

"Look, I just wanted to have a little fun. Have a little joy ride and then I'll return it. It'll be fine." Ty explained. With that she turned back to the bike, kneeling to glance at the motor and grumbling under her breath, "Who shoved a stick up your ass?"

The muscle in Dean's jaw jumped. He leaped forward, grabbing Ty's arm and yanking her up and around to face him. He opened his mouth to yell something else that might hopefully get it into her thick skull that she simply could not pull this shit in the middle of a hunt. But before he could form any words, Alex appeared through the front doors.

"Uh...the police just got a call if anyone's interested." he announced.

Dean released Ty with a low growl and stalked off towards the Impala. Alex shrugged again before following him to get his truck.

"Coming, Ty?" Sam asked.

Ty shook her head and patted the bike, "I'll follow you."

Sam nodded and headed over to the Impala. He watched Ty as he opened the door and climbed in. She straddled the bike and revved the engine. Sam wondered how'd she gotten the keys and when exactly she'd become a thief as Dean pulled out and began to follow Alex. It was just another thing to add to the list of unusual behaviors Ty had exhibited lately. Frowning, Sam wondered how much longer he could wait or whether he should just tell Dean about his apprehension. Shaking his head to himself, he resolved to hold out just a little longer.

Sam lost track of Ty in the rearview as they progressed through town. He looked around for her, but there was no sign of her behind them and he could see the police lights up ahead. Sam thought maybe she'd gotten caught at a light or something, so he reached for his phone. Strangely, Ty didn't answer.

"Now where is she?" Dean demanded.

"She's not answering her phone." Sam shook his head.

The boys both caught sight of Alex standing outside of his truck and gesturing at them, spreading his hands questioningly.

"Whatever. We don't have time to wait for her. Let's go." Dean said, grabbing a fake ID out of the glove box and heading towards the crime scene.

Sam followed quickly as his brother stalked towards the crime scene, frankly a little concerned about how Dean's girl troubles might affect his hunting.

"What's the plan, guys?" Alex asked, falling in step with them as they walked by.

"Plan is you wait here." Dean replied immediately.

Alex began to protest, but Dean cut him off quickly, hardly hesitating in his movement, "I call the shots, remember?"

Alex paused, frowned, crossed his arms over his chest and glared after Dean, "I hope it's a trap."

Dean ignored him. As he and Sam moved into the chaotic scene of squad cars, flashing lights and police tape, he picked out the most likely candidate for officer-in-charge and headed for him.

"Hey, boys!" he greeted with a fake smile, "U.S. marshal Walker. This is my partner Norris. Heard you boys could use some help on this one."

The officer Dean had pegged as the guy in charge frowned as Dean and Sam flashed their badges, "U.S. marshals?"

Dean held up his hands in an unobtrusive gesture, "Hey, don't worry about any of that jurisdiction crap. It's your show, we're just here to help."

The officer continued to frown, but shrugged and held out his hand to shake Dean and Sam's, "Sergeant Thompson. You boys want to help, you may as well come take a look at this."

Dean and Sam exchanged a look, both picking up on the note of disbelief in the sergeant's tone before following after him as he led them inside the cordoned-off residence.

"No real sign of forced entry." the sergeant explained as he opened the door, "But inside you can see the place is trashed. Clear signs of a struggle. In fact, we've even got a gun with the victim. He fired it twice at whoever or whatever came at him."

"Whatever?" Sam questioned.

The sergeant just shrugged and gestured for the boys to proceed him into the den. Dean and Sam exchanged another look before they stepped past the sergeant into the room. The walls and furniture all around the room were splattered with blood. The couch was overturned and across it was the victim's body. From the position of the body, it looked like he had backed into it, falling back on it. The gun the sergeant had mentioned was on the ground, just below the victim's hand. However, the most obvious thing about the whole scene was that the victim's chest had been ripped open, his heart torn out.

Sam coughed and covered his mouth, glancing away for a second. Dean's eyes widened for a second as he took in the gore. This was a little more gruesome than he'd anticipated. Maybe that Alex kid was right for once, maybe this thing had gotten bored.

"Any idea who did this?" Sam asked.

The sergeant shook his head, "There's two bullet holes in this wall, but whatever he was shooting at, he must've missed. CSI guys haven't found any sign of the...uh...heart yet either."

"Any of the neighbors see anything?" Dean asked.

"I got guys asking around now."

"Mind if we take a quick look around?"

"Be my guest." the sergeant shrugged, "CSI's done, we're just waiting for the morgue guys to come pick up the victim."

With that the sergeant began to retreat towards the door.

"Sergeant," Sam called before he left, "the victim, what's his name?"

"Benjamin Durton."

Sam nodded and the sergeant left, leaving the two hunters to pick through the scene on their own. Dean made his way across the room to the opposite wall where a window was open. He bent over the windowsill, taking a closer look at the residue mixed in with the blood splatters, marring the paint.

"Sulfur?" Sam asked.

Inspecting the window, Dean nodded, "Sulfur. It's our guy."

Frowning, Sam crossed the room, careful to step over the bloody spots, and moved over to a computer sitting on a desk against the opposite wall. The screen was black, but when Sam touched the mouse with a sleeve-covered hand, the screen came on, displaying an open Word document. Quickly glancing through the page displayed, Sam decided it looked like some kind of fictional work. However, the last sentence caught his attention.

He read out loud so Dean would hear, "And the monster said to the hunters, 'Come and get me.'"

"What?" Dean asked, pausing in his survey of the crime scene to shoot Sam a confused look.

"That's the last line on this page." Sam explained.

"Think it wrote that?" Dean asked.

Sam paused, then decided to operate on a hunch and grabbed the keyboard with both sleeved hands and turned it over, shaking it. A yellowish dust fell out and piled on the table. Glancing from the traces of sulfur over to his brother, Sam nodded, "Yeah. And I think it's talking to us."

Dean scoffed, "Nah. Probably just made the rookie."

"Well, either way, I'd say the element of surprise is out the window." Sam said, carefully placing the keyboard back down and straightening.

"Yeah, well, maybe we don't need it." Dean replied, emerging from the other side of the overturned couch with a matchbook.

Dean held the matchbook out to Sam, who took it and turned it over. Sam's eyes widened and he looked quickly up at Dean in surprise, "This is our hotel."

Dean nodded, his mouth a grim line, "Right under our noses."

Sam pocketed the matchbook and, by silent agreement, both boys carefully maneuvered their way back towards the door. Two county morgue workers entered just as Sam and Dean were leaving, the boys standing back to make room for them to enter.

"Well, boys?" the sergeant asked as Sam and Dean moved away from the house.

Dean opened his mouth to reply, but Sam cut him off before he could do so, knowing by the look on his face that Dean was about to make some smart ass remark most likely insulting the intelligence of the local police officers, "Crazy stuff. You think it's linked to the other deaths recently?"

The sergeant glanced around at the other officers nearby and lowered his voice before he answered, "There's nothing that outright says so, but it's just too weird to be unrelated, don't you think?"

"Nah, really?" Dean mumbled under his breath, turning his back on Sam and the sergeant.

Sam glared at his back before quickly speaking to cover up his brother's comment, "Do you think we could take a look at the case files on the other deaths?"

"You'll have to come down to the station." the sergeant said, seeming relieved that Sam seemed to agree with him about the string of deaths, "Come find me and I'll pull them for you. I'll be there the rest of the day working on this one."

"Thanks." Sam said, "We'll stop by later."

"Yeah, thanks." Dean echoed with barely disguised sarcasm.

Sam elbowed him once they were a safe distance past the patrol cars. Dean, of course, glared at him for doing so and punched him in the shoulder.

"Ow!" Sam exclaimed, clamping a hand over the abused area, "Jerk!"

Dean refrained from reminding Sam that he was a bitch since Alex was giving them a skeptical look.

"Find anything?" Alex asked, still brooding.

"Ask nicely or you'll never know." Dean replied with the same snarky tone.

Alex's look darkened and Sam prepared to jump in between them, silently wishing that his brother had the sense not to pick a fight a few hundred feet from a whole cadre of police.

"What the hell happened in there, please?" Alex growled.

Dean continued to glare at him for a while minute in which Sam watched them both carefully before he shifted his weight to his heels, flashed Alex a fake grin and said, "Now that wasn't so hard, was it?"

"There was a guy with his heart ripped out and a matchbook from our hotel." Sam said quickly before the two could antagonize each other any more.

"Heart ripped out?" Alex said, making a face, "That's new."

"There was also something on the guy's computer that pretty much said, 'come and get me.'" Sam added.

"See anything like that before that you forgot to mention, rookie?" Dean demanded.

Struck, Alex actually ignored Dean's tone and just shook his head, "No. Not really. I mean, I got the distinct impression that it knew someone was on to it. It was like it didn't even care, wasn't really even trying to cover its tracks. But nothing that obvious." Alex blinked and looked up at the Winchesters, "The cops see it?"

"It was tagged onto some story the guy had on the computer, so I doubt they picked up on it." Dean shrugged, turning to go back to the Impala, "And where the hell is Ty?"

Sam and Alex both looked after Dean as he stomped back to the Impala.

"Just leave it." Sam told Alex with a shake of his head.

"He always like that?" Alex asked.

"No." Sam denied, "Not always. But then, she's not usually like this either."

Alex raised his eyebrow in silent question, but Sam shook his head again. Alex shrugged and heaved a sigh, resigned to be kept in the dark still. He moved around the truck to climb back into the driver's seat.

"Sam!" Dean yelled, leaning out the window of the Impala, "Shag ass already!"

"Bite me." Sam grumbled under his breath.

Mentally, he also told himself that he really needed to get this all worked out. It was hard enough hunting a demon on a killing spree without having to deal with a moody brother and his screwed up girlfriend.

Back at the hotel, Dean first attempted to wait for Ty to return his numerous calls in Sam and Alex's room. He blew off steam by pestering Sam and bothering Alex, trying to rouse him into a fight. When neither would take the bait, he stalked back to his own room, throwing pillows and couch cushions around the room angrily while he listened to his phone continuing to ring, unanswered. Finally, unable to stand the confines of his room anymore, Dean headed down the stairs. He figured that maybe going outside and making sure that his baby's fluid levels were all good would distract him for a little while. Unfortunately, no sooner had he opened the hood than the sounds of a motorcycle entering the parking lot drew his attention. Jerking upright to see if it was Ty, Dean banged his head against the hood with a resounding thud.

"Son of a bitch!" he swore, touching the back of his head gingerly with his hand. Dean rubbed his head as he glanced across the parking lot to see a blonde on a black motorcycle pulling up to him, "Great. Now I've got a pain in the head and a pain in the ass."

"Hey, baby." Ty greeted him with a wide grin as she parked the bike and reclined on the seat.

"Stow it. Where the hell have you been?"

"Oh, well, I was following you guys when I saw this place with this really cool jacket in the window and when I went in they had these great boots..." Ty began.

Dean couldn't believe his ears, "You blew off a hunt to buy shoes?"

"No, I blew off a hunt to buy really cute boots." Ty corrected, lifting her leg and looking down at the black, leather boots she'd purchased with approval.

"What the hell is wrong with you? Acting weird, stealing motorcycles, blowing off hunts."

"You are so off base." Ty snapped, dismounting the motorcycle and heading away from him, towards the hotel.

"Then, by all means, set me straight." Dean challenged, following her.

"Sorry, Dean." Ty answered flippantly, walking backwards to face him, "No time. I was gonna go meet Alex and maybe go for a spin on my bike."

Dean snagged Ty around the waist to halt her progress and propelled her into the wall of the hotel building, "Stop doing that! Stop acting like you don't care and using other guys to piss me off."

"Why, Dean? Does it make you jealous?" Ty asked, raising an eyebrow.

Dean paused, closed his eyes and took a deep breath before he responded, knowing that if he didn't, he'd lose it.

"Just tell me why you're doing this? Are you pissed at me about something? What?"

Ty pretended to think about it, "Pissed at you? Hmmm, not that I know of. Although you are being kind of an ass."

"Cut the crap! Seriously, just tell me what's up." Dean would have almost been pleading if it weren't for the angry growl still in his voice.

"Nothing, Dean. I just...I don't know. I figured there were three of you and even if the demon was still there, three of you can handle an exorcism, can't you?"

"Not the point." Dean protested.

"Yeah, I know." Ty agreed before he could say anymore. She gave him a level stare, her face finally taking a serious caste, "The point is that I died, Dean. I _died_. So why shouldn't I have fun now?"

Dean looked away at her words, the guilt that still lingered over that particular episode rearing its head once again. He tried to think of something to say to her but nothing was coming to mind. So, the sight of his brother walking out of the hotel doors was actually quite a relief.

"Sam?" Dean said, trying to seem like he was more startled than relieved.

"Dean? Ty!" Sam exclaimed upon seeing her.

"Yeah, that's the three of us." Ty agreed, slipping past Dean. She glanced back over her shoulder at him, "I'm going up to our room."

With that she flounced past Sam and back inside. Sam glanced after her, then back to his brother.

Sam shifted uncomfortably before venturing, "Dude, do you think Ty's acting kind of...?"

"Whorey?" Dean supplied, "Yeah."

Sam paused, debating about whether or not he should voice his concerns now that Dean seemed to be open to the idea that Ty wasn't exactly as she should be.

"Uh...Dean?" he finally began.

"Yeah." Dean asked, still staring in the direction Ty had gone.

"You get the feeling that maybe something's...I don't know, not right with Ty?" Sam asked, choosing his words carefully.

"What do you mean?" Dean asked, turning to look at his brother.

Dean had his own worries about Ty, but if his brother had insight on the situation, he wanted to hear it before he confessed his own insecurities.

"Well, I was...uh...thinking that Ty's been kind of weird ever since that thing with the yellow-eyed demon happened and...well..."

"Spit it out, Sam." Dean ordered, frowning.

"What if the Ty it brought back isn't all our Ty? What if..."

Dean's frown deepened, "What if what, Sam? What if she's evil? Is that what you're trying to say? What if I have to kill her?"

"No! Well, I just..."

"No, Sam." Dean said with finality, "No. If something like that were wrong, I'd know, okay? Yeah, she's screwed up. But it's not that."

"Dean..." Sam protested.

"I said no, Sam!" Dean snapped.

Without waiting for a response, Dean moved gruffly past Sam and back inside as well. Sam looked after him for a moment, trying to decide whether he should go after him or go and get the journal out of the car like he'd planned. Finally, he decided that going after Dean would only lead to more arguing at present and he might as well get back to work on spying on all the other hotel guests with Alex. The kid was very gung ho, but not particularly subtle so Sam didn't think leaving him to flush out a suspect on his own was a great idea. So with a weary sigh, Sam trudged towards the Impala, wishing he hadn't said anything.

When Dean got back to the hotel room, Ty was sitting on the bed, one foot resting across the other knee as she unzipped her new tall, black boots. She looked up when Dean entered, but her face was unreadable. Looking at her and considering her words, Dean crossed the room quickly. He wasn't about to say that he was sorry since he still thought that during a hunt was a shitty time to go shopping, but he couldn't exactly stay mad at her now either. So, he settled for lifting her from the bed slightly so that he could take her spot on it, then pulling her into his lap so that he could kiss her. Ty immediately began kissing him back, one hand splaying across his chest and the other tangling in the hair on the back of his head as she changed her position so that she was straddling his lap. After a few minutes of heated kisses that neither seemed willing to break off for longer than it took to refill their lungs, Ty pushed Dean's jacket off his arms along with his shirt. Dean shook the material free of his arms, then returned his hands to Ty's sides. Ty smiled against his lips, shaking her head slightly as she took his hands off of her and directed him to hold his arms up. Grasping the hem of his undershirt, she swiftly pulled it off him and tossed it onto the ground with his other clothes. That accomplished, she repeated the action with her own shirt. Dean, meanwhile, scooted backward on the bed until he head reached the pillows, pulling Ty with him. Ty grinned down at him from her seated position on top of him and began to move her hips.

Looking up at her, Dean wasn't sure what was wrong with him. Here he was, pinned to a bed by a girl he actually liked, the movement of her hips grinding down on him making his jeans uncomfortably tight, and all he could think about was that there was something wrong with the situation, with this girl. What could be wrong? He spent most of his time when he wasn't fighting evil trying to get into exactly this position. Dean shook the nagging thoughts out of his head and reached up, grabbing Ty's arms and pulling her down to him. Smashing his lips against hers so that she wouldn't know about the strange hesitation that was pulling at him, he reached around her back to unhook her bra, the last piece of clothing she still had on her torso.

"Dean?" Ty questioned, pulling away from his mouth so that she could plant open mouthed kisses on his neck.

"Yeah?" Dean grunted in response, brow furrowing as her movements complicated the task of undressing her.

"What's wrong?" Ty asked without looking up at him or pausing in her ministrations.

Dean, however, did pause. He swore to himself about perceptive women as he let his hands fall back to his sides.

"Nothing." he lied, "Why?"

Now Ty pulled away, returning to a sitting position and looking down at him, "Well, because usually you're more of a take charge kind of guy and I'm doing all the work here. If you're not up for this..."

Dean reacted quickly, grabbing Ty by the upper arms and practically throwing her back onto the bed, swiftly reversing their positions as he pulled her under him.

"Babe, the day I'm not up for this you might want to try poking me with a stick." he quipped, flashing that grin of his that he knew made girls, Ty included, melt.

Ty responded with a devilish grin. That look on her face, although not an unusual expression for Ty, for some reason caused that voice of doubt in Dean's mind to start shouting at him again. Dean frowned in frustration at his inability to shake it.

"I was wondering about one thing though." Dean said, looking away.

"And what's that?" Ty asked, squirming a little under Dean's weight.

Dean fixed his gaze back on Ty's face, locking eyes with her. Dean hesitated for a moment, just staring into her eyes, but the seed of doubt had already been planted and apparently would not be ignored no matter how hard he tried.

"Christo." he whispered.

Their gazes still locked, Ty cringed, then froze and suddenly Dean was staring into a dark abyss instead of Ty's blue orbs. Shock coursed through Dean's system and he found that he wasn't moving, either, just continuing to stare at eyes as black as night. A myriad of emotions washed over him and he opened and closed his mouth a few times, trying to get out some words.

"Way to break the mood, Dean." Ty accused with an aggravated sigh.

Dean scrambled back away from Ty, practically falling off the bed in his haste. Regaining his footing, he stared at Ty, wishing that it was just his imagination that she was still looking at him with the eyes of a demon. A million thoughts raced through his brain, but the only words that managed to make it out of his mouth were, "Damn it, Sam!"


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter Eight: Behind Blue Eyes

_No one knows what it's like  
To be the bad man  
To be the sad man   
Behind blue eyes  
No one knows what it's like  
To be hated   
To be fated  
To telling only lies  
But my dreams  
They aren't as empty  
As my conscience seems to be  
I have hours, only lonely  
My love is vengeance  
That's never free  
No one knows what it's like  
To feel these feelings  
Like I do   
And I blame you  
No one bites back as hard  
On their anger   
None of my pain and woe  
Can show through  
But my dreams   
They aren't as empty  
As my conscience seems to be  
I have hours, only lonely  
My love is vengeance  
That's never free  
When my fist clenches, crack it open  
Before I use it and lose my cool  
When I smile, tell me some bad news  
Before I laugh and act like a fool  
If I swallow anything evil  
Put your finger down my throat  
If I shiver, please give me a blanket  
Keep me warm, let me wear your coat  
No one knows what it's like  
To be the bad man  
To be the sad man  
Behind blue eyes_

Ty chuckled as she got up from the bed and moved across the room towards Dean. His reaction, the way he was currently backing away, searching the room with his eyes for a weapon, but hesitating to go after one, was all terribly amusing. She didn't need to keep her eyes black, but the way it made him look at her with too wide eyes was priceless. Seriously, he was a hunter and he hadn't even known that he'd had a demon right under his nose, hell, in his bed, this whole time. It was enough to make her want to gloat.

"Get the hell out of her." Dean growled, recovering from his shock.

"Why should I?" she challenged, raising an eyebrow.

"Get out of her now or I swear to God I'll send your ass back to hell." Dean snapped, his eyes burning with fury.

Ty stopped her forward motion, blinking until her eyes returned to their normal shade of blue. She softened her demeanor, spreading her hands wide from her sides in a non-threatening pose, "Now, Dean. Let's talk about this."

"Talk, my ass. Get out of my girl now."

Ty smiled, a momentary lifting of her lips on one side, "I've been your girl for the past week or so."

"No." Dean denied vehemently, shaking his head, "No."

But it was really hard to deny their intimacy given that Dean was down to his jeans and Ty was missing her shirt.

"We're a lot alike, Dean." Ty continued as if he hadn't spoken, turning and pacing around the room as she spoke, "That's why I picked you."

"I'm nothing like you. You're a freaking demon!"

"Oh, and you're an angel, are you Dean?" Ty challenged, whirling to face him, "You're just this side of hell as it is."

Dean didn't like where this conversation was going. Sure, he wasn't perfect, but he certainly wasn't evil. Now on the defensive, Dean blurted out, "I don't kill people."

"No, you just kill everything else." Ty said, disdain coloring her voice. Shaking her head, she softened her expression again and reached her hands out to Dean, "Stop fighting it, Dean. I know you. I know you hate all this right and wrong tightrope-walking. Hell, if it wasn't for Sam, we both know you'd be completely lost. Well, Sam can't be your moral compass forever. He wants his own life, Dean. You going to deny him that because you need someone to help you sort things out?"

"Shut up." Dean barked, shaking his head, trying not to listen. It was no secret that Sam was his weakness. The demon was just exploiting that.

"I'm just offering you another way, Dean. See, I'm not exactly what you'd call a team player, either. Everyone on my side is so obsessed with Sam. They all think he's something so damn special." Ty shook her head and laughed, letting her hands fall back to her sides, "But I know you Winchesters. I know that Sam's not the one we should be focusing on. It's you, Dean."

Dean's eyes narrowed suspiciously, "You know us?"

Ty's eyes locked with Dean's, her face unreadable again, "You killed my dad."

"What?" Dean demanded as warning bells screamed in his head and he moved closer to his duffel bag..

"The yellow-eyed demon." Ty elaborated. She continued before Dean could interject again, "Don't worry. You actually did me a favor. Demon father's aren't exactly warm and fuzzy. And with him gone, I don't have to pretend to be a good little soldier anymore. Now I can actually do what I want. You know how that goes, right Dean?"

"Don't talk about my dad." Dean warned, freezing.

"Fine." Ty shrugged, "Let's keep talking about you. You don't like authority, neither do I. You don't talk about it, but you like hunting. You're not like Sam. You're not doing this because you have to, you're doing this because you're good at it, you enjoy it. I got no problem with that, Dean. The world needs people like us, people who can handle the stuff that goes on in the shadows. You know how duality works, Dean? If there was no such thing as evil, there'd be no such thing as good. You need one to set the other apart. Well, I don't think that's how things really are. I think it's all shades of gray. This good and evil bullshit is just a cop out, justification on both sides."

Ty stopped, looking at Dean and measuring his reaction. Seeing her looking, Dean finally asked, "Why are you telling me this?"

Ty flashed Dean a bright smile, "Because think of the fun we'd have together. You and me, like we've been this last week, but better. We can hunt some of the bastards from hell, if you want. Hunting without worrying about the consequences."

"You want to take down some of your own?" Dean asked, not bothering to hide his skepticism.

Ty shrugged, "There's not really any love lost between me and them. They'd take me out, too, if they could."

Dean stared at her, "I don't get it."

Ty's brow furrowed, confused, "Get what?"

"I don't get it. This is your plan? Try and talk me into switching sides?" Dean laughed gruffly, "Sister, you're out of your mind."

"It's not a plan, Dean. I'm serious." Ty insisted. She slowly moved closer to him again, pleased when Dean held his ground. Smiling at him, she reached out to trail a hand down his arm, "Let me prove it to you."

Dean flinched at her touch, but didn't move. Ty took that as a positive sign and continued, her hand moving to linger on his bare chest. With her foot, she kicked Dean's duffel bag further away. Dean's eyes followed it, but he made no move to go after it just yet. Instead, he turned his eyes back to Ty's face

"We've got a hunt, right? I can find the demon for you. I'm sorry I bailed before, but I knew that if you guys tried anything to ID it, you'd out me. But now that you know, I can use my powers to help you."

"And all I've got to do is sell you my soul, right?" Dean sneered.

Ty leaned into him and looked up into his face, still smiling, "Oh, Dean. You know your soul's hardly worth it. I don't want your soul. I want you."

Dean looked down into Ty's upturned face, only inches apart, "Well, I've got a problem with that. See, I don't do demon scum."

"Hate to keep reminding you, baby, but you've been doing me for about a week now." Ty said softly against his lips.

"Get out of her." Dean breathed back, his voice a deadly whisper.

Ty shook her head slowly, "I like it right where I am."

Dean took a step back, putting distance between them again, and reaching behind him to grasp the door handle.

"Have it your way." he said, pulling the door open, "Sam!"

Ty frowned, crossing her arms over her chest and backing towards the other side of the room, "Close that door or I take a dive out the window. We're three floors up. I'll survive the fall. You're Ty, maybe, maybe not."

Dean slowly closed the door. The two eyed each other across the room. They were at an impasse: Dean wouldn't accept a demon in Ty's body but was unprepared to do anything about it and the demon wasn't about to leave of its own free will.

Ty laughed and bent down, picking up her discarded shirt and pulling it back on, "Well, Dean, what now?"

Dean just shook his head.

"Tell me what the cops had." Ty said, not really demanding, but not asking either.

At a loss for what else to do and not seeing how it would matter if she knew, Dean described the scene, "A guy was killed, heart ripped out. We found a 'come and get me' note on the computer and a matchbook from this hotel."

"Heart ripped out?" Ty repeated, looking surprised, "Somebody's getting cocky."

Dean didn't like this, but it was the best lead he had at this point, so he grudgingly moved further away from the door, "Okay, I'll bite. What do you mean?"

Ty smiled and sat down on the edge of the bed, pulling her boots back on "Usually when we off someone, we make it a bit more ambiguous. Those first deaths Alex told us about could've been suicide. Even if you're going to straight up kill someone, you do it in a way that doesn't draw a whole lot of attention. Heart ripped out's pretty conspicuous."

Dean glanced back at the door as if looking for Sam, then over at Ty, frowning again. It was fairly obvious he was wavering about something and the demon in Ty pounced on that.

"Look, we both know we're a little stuck here. I'm not leaving and you can't get rid of me without hurting her. So, how about a trial run? If I can't win you over to my side of things by the end of this hunt, you can have her back; we'll both go our separate ways." she offered, watching his eyes carefully.

Dean didn't reply right away, but she could see it in his eyes that he would. It was obvious that he wasn't happy about the situation, but it was just as apparent that he couldn't think of another way. She smiled triumphantly even before he slowly nodded.

"Alright then." she said cheerfully, "You said the demon's staying in this hotel? Let's go find him."

Ty moved quickly past him for the door. Halfway out into the hall, she paused and glanced back at him, "Oh, and Dean? Don't even think about double-crossing me."

Dean scowled and Ty grinned, knowing that she'd read him correctly. He'd already been planning on trapping her in a Devil's Trap and performing an exorcism. She'd have to keep a close eye on him, but she was still confident that he'd come around.

Moving down the hall, Ty could tell that Sam and Alex weren't in their room without even needing to open the door. After being in the game for as long as she had, she could practically smell a hunter from a mile away. No, the junior Winchester and the Flynn prodigy must be somewhere else, undoubtedly already looking for the demon hiding in the hotel. She smiled to herself, hoping she ran into them before Dean. She knew Sam suspected, but it would still be so much fun to spook the hunters. It was funny, really. After everything her father had told her and her siblings about the Winchesters, she'd expected that infiltrating them would be a lot more difficult. Luckily this Ty girl had shown up to provide her with the perfect opportunity and had even left herself wide open to possession. She smirked as she thought about it because it was obvious that this wasn't the first time this girl had been possessed. She could feel traces of her father here. So, you would think that she'd have known better, but apparently not. And now she had the perfect route to get to Dean.

_'Leave him alone.'_

The demon in Ty rolled her eyes. This girl would not shut up. Seriously, at this point the hunters best bet was that Ty would annoy her out of her body.

_'I won't let you hurt him.'_ Ty growled in her head as she stepped onto the elevator and the doors slid closed.

"Oh, yes. Because you've been doing such a bang-up job stopping me from doing whatever I want so far." the demon replied sarcastically, under her breath.

_'It doesn't matter. One way or another, we'll stop you.'_ Ty vowed, but the demon was inside her and could see through her words to the fear and uncertainty underneath.

"Honey, if I was you, I'd just sit back and enjoy the ride. From what I've seen, this is an improvement on you, anyway." the demon taunted, "And sooner or later, Dean's going to think so, too."

With that, the demon blocked Ty out again, shoving her back into a dark corner of her own mind. As much fun as poking holes in the girl's stubborn resolve and preying on her ever-growing insecurities could be, she could not afford the distraction right now. Success was so close she could taste it and she would not have this little bitch of a wannabe-hunter screw things up for her.

The elevator dinged and the doors slid back to reveal the hotel lobby. Turning the corner, Ty spotted Sam and Alex sitting in the lounge area, subtly observing everyone who came and went. She quickly traversed the lobby to join them.

"Hey, guys." she greeted them cheerfully, "Dean just caught me up on everything. Sorry I wasn't there. How's it going?"

Sam glanced around quickly to make sure no one was close enough to eavesdrop on their conversation before demanding, "Where were you?"

"I...uh...got caught up in something else." Ty said, letting her eyes flash black for a second.

Their reaction was almost as good as Dean's. Both jumped up from their chairs, Alex quickly moving around behind his to put it between them. To their credit, they stifled any shouts, although their behavior was attracting a little attention anyway. Ty smiled past them at the concierge, who shook his head and went back to helping the guests standing before him.

"Now, boys, you're making a scene." she scolded.

Sam glanced around quickly, saw she was right and forced himself to take a more relaxed posture and lower his voice when he spoke, "Who are you?"

"Oh, we're practically old friends, Sam." Ty said easily, taking a seat, "You knew my father and my sister very well."

Sam's eyes narrowed and he had to take a deep breath in order to keep himself under control, "The yellow-eyed demon."

"Dear old dad." Ty agreed bitterly, "You made quite an impression, Sammy. Sis is still screaming about you."

"What do you want?" Sam growled, apparently not appreciating the reminder about Meg or her father.

"Don't worry, Sammy. I'm not here about you. In fact, I couldn't care less about you." Ty said, a bored look emphasizing her words.

"So, it's true." Alex said before Sam could continue interrogating her, glancing between them, "Demons do follow you around like the tail on a dog."

"You're one to talk, Alex." Ty sneered, "Poor little Alex Flynn, son of two murdered hunters whose dying wish was that their boy _wouldn't_ follow in their footsteps. Way to honor your parents' wishes, Alex."

Expression faded from Alex's face and his eyes were cold as he glared at Ty, "What do you know about it?"

Ty smiled, "Enough."

Alex tensed and Sam put a steadying hand on his shoulder before he could do anything stupid. At the contact, Alex glanced over. Sam shook his head slowly, his eyes holding pity for the younger hunter at this revelation, but his voice firm and steady as he said, "Don't. Demons lie."

"Sometimes." Ty agreed, "But when the truth is this good, why lie?"

"Where's Dean?" Sam demanded.

Ty inclined her head and cast her gaze to the left where Dean was just now emerging from the stairwell. Glancing from Ty to Dean, Sam carefully moved to join his brother. Dean, meanwhile, had already spotted them and was heading towards them, as well.

"Just you and me, Alex." Ty said, crossing her legs and leaning back in her chair, "So, tell me. What's brought you back into this game? Think this might be the demon that offed mom and dad?"

Alex scowled, wary of responding. He glanced back at the Winchesters, looking for guidance, but they were still busy having a hurried, whispered conversation.

"Still not thinking for yourself. I'm disappointed, Alex."

Alex glanced back at the Winchesters one more time before moving around the chair to sit back down, balancing precariously on the edge, ready to spring up again at a moment's notice. He leaned forward before demanding in a hushed tone, "Was it you?"

Ty smiled, "Maybe if you're a good boy, I'll tell you."

"You'll tell me." Alex agreed, hands clenching into fists, "I don't care what it takes."

"Oh, really?" Ty asked, intrigued, "'Cause if you're planning on hurting this body I'm in, you're going to have to deal with them."

Alex was about to reply, but Sam noticed them talking and interrupted, "Alex! Come here."

Glaring at Ty, Alex slowly stood and backed away, moving over to join the Winchesters. Ty just smiled after him, apparently unconcerned. She glanced idly around the lobby, recrossing her legs and swinging the top one back and forth. It was obvious that the boys were discussing what to do about her, probably trying to devise some sort of plan to outwit her and then yank her out of Ty's body. She might be more concerned if she hadn't already figured out who the other demon on the scene was. Finally, deciding that the boys had had enough time to talk about her, she stood and strode over to join them.

"Talking about me?" she asked with feigned sweetness, "That's not very polite, you know."

"The phrase 'screw you' comes to mind." Dean snapped in response.

"Anytime, Dean, baby." Ty replied, moving between them to single him out.

"Stay away from my brother and Alex." Dean continued angrily, ignoring her comment, "You said this was about me, so you deal with me."

"Still jealous." Ty grinned, shaking her head, "Alright, then. If that's what you want, I'm all yours. Anything for you, Dean."

The fact that the demon was getting off on his anger was pissing Dean off even more. If the damn thing hadn't been in Ty's body, he knew he would have taken physical action by now. As it was, it was all he could do to keep himself barely under control.

Shoving her back into a corner of the lobby out of the direct line of sight of the concierge, Dean loomed over her, using his superior height to his advantage. Not that she seemed to care.

"Stop stalling. You said you could find this demon for me, so do it."

"I like it when you get pushy." she replied, eyeing him up and down with a hungry glint in her eyes, "I don't know, Dean. What if I don't tell you? You gonna smack me around a little?"

Dean caught himself before he fell for her ploy, forcing himself to take a step back. Quickly turning away from her, he closed his eyes for a second, taking a deep breath, forcing oxygen into his lungs.

"You know she thinks you're going to leave her." the demon whispered, one hand snaking over Dean's shoulder, "She figures you'll lose interest in her, if you haven't already. It just kills her that I got you hot."

Dean couldn't take it. He whirled around, one hand snapping out and grasping her around the throat, just under the chin, forcing her back into the wall again, forcing her head up so that he all he had to do was tip the flask he had pressed against her cheek and holy water would drip into her mouth. She gasped when it happened, surprised at the force he'd used against her. A drop slipped free from the flask and splashed on her tongue, sizzling and causing her to inhale sharply in pain.

"Dean!" she choked out past the iron grip he had on her throat, "Can't! Not here! Too many...people."

Looking into his eyes, she wondered for a moment if he even cared. Wondered if maybe she had pushed him too far, far enough that he was more concerned with punishing her than exposure. Then he released his grip and stepped back again as she coughed and rubbed at her bruised skin. Maybe she had misjudged how far she could push him. And yet, her eyes still shone with delight over the incident. The scales were most definitely tipped in her favor when it came to the bigger picture.

"Who is it?" Dean demanded again, but this time without the scalding fury that had overcome him moments before.

"Man with the briefcase who just left." Ty said, straightening, "He was wearing a blue tie."

"And you let him get away." Dean accused, anger flaring once again.

Ty shrugged, "You seemed busy with your little Winchester pow-wow. Besides, I can find him again."

"Good." Dean said, grabbing her arm and dragging her back towards Sam and Alex, "You two hit the police station, we're going after her cousin."

"But Dean, we were the ones the cop talked to before and Alex has already..." Sam began to protest, moving quickly to keep up with Dean as he propelled Ty towards the door.

"I don't care. Just do it." Dean growled, "Alex can wait in the car."

Frowning at Dean's tone, Sam gave up both trying to keep up with him and reasoning with him. Now back in the parking lot, Sam watched as Dean shoved Ty into the Impala, then stalked around the car to get in himself. Alex came up next to him at that point and they both watched as Dean peeled out of the parking lot.

"Well, that went well." Alex commented.


	9. Chapter 9

A/N: What kind of person would I be if I couldn't work REO Speedwagon in here eventually? Sorry it's taking me longer to get this stuff written, guys. I'm back in school (last semester of undergrad), but on the plus side, my thesis is almost done (all 90 freaking pages or whatever). Also, I've got kind of an idea of where I want to go from here, so things are looking pretty good, I think. Anyway, please, please review. You have no idea how much a review helps get me inspired to write more. And, if something doesn't work, please tell me so I can fix it. I'm not the best at writing action scenes, I much prefer writing dialogue, so feel free to tell me if it sucks. Alright. Here goes.

Chapter Nine: Kinder than the Lightning

_Lady beside me  
She's there to guide me  
She says that alone we've finally found home  
The wind outside is frightening  
But it's kinder than the lightning life of the city  
It's a hard life to live but it gives back what you give_

And I'm not missing a thing  
Watching the full moon crossing the range  
Riding the storm out  
Riding the storm out  
Riding the storm out  
Riding the storm out

Dean hadn't said anything since he'd shoved Ty in the car and careened out of the parking lot like a crazy person. However, if the increasingly agitated set of his jaw and the flashing fury in his eyes were any indication, the smirks she was sending him would soon push him off the deep end.

"You know, you don't know what it's like playing the bad guy." she commented, gazing at the passing scenery idly, "You take it for granted that it's because of us that you get to sweep in and play the hero."

"Stow it." Dean snapped.

"Has it ever occurred to you, Dean that you might not always be on the right side?" she wondered out loud.

"If I don't see that damn demon soon, I'm making a Devil's Trap out of skid marks and exorcising your ass." Dean threatened.

Ty laughed then leveled Dean with a black-eyed stare, a confident smirk still gracing her lips, "You hunters are so fond of your exorcisms. Tell me, Dean. What would you do if it didn't work?"

Dean's blood ran cold at the thought, but he tried not to let it show. He ripped his gaze away from the soulless stare of the demon when he realized that he was staring at her and glued his eyes back on the road. He tried to ask her a question, distract from the fact that he wasn't answering her, but found his throat inexplicably dry and had to clear it before any words would come out.

"I'm serious. Start giving directions. Where did it go?" Dean demanded, but his words lacked the force they'd had before she'd gotten him thinking about failed exorcisms.

"Turn left up here." Ty said, taking her eyes off Dean and leaning back into her seat

Dean did so, feeling somewhat relieved that they were focused on something besides the state of Ty's possession. Talking with the demon like this was disconcerting. His dad had always taught them that demons lie, so you had to ignore anything they said and deal with them as quickly as possible. Well, he was kind of up shit creak without a paddle on that one, so he was stuck listening to it. He'd tried to ignore it at first, but it was impossible. And why was it being so candid anyway? Did it really think that it could convince him to sympathize with it?

Ty sighed, drawing his attention back to her and out of his own thoughts. The look on her face was so Ty that Dean had to blink for a second. She looked so frustrated and yet weary at the same time, like she was tired of being frustrated. She felt him looking and turned her head to meet his gaze.

"Look, Dean, I know you don't trust me. We're from different sides of the tracks, so why would you? But I'm being as honest with you here as I can, which is actually kind of new for me. Anyway, the point is...I like you, Dean. I think we're a lot alike and that we could really get along great. And I know, I know 'I'm a demon.' Well, don't you ever get tired of being a hunter? 'Cause I'll tell you now, I'm freaking _tired_ of being a demon." she said and her big, blue eyes looked sincere, "Turn right."

Dean mentally shook himself. Those weren't her blue eyes, they were Ty's. The demon was using them just like it was using the rest of her to play on his weaknesses. Dean had never been demonically possessed himself, but he couldn't imagine it was any kind of picnic to have a demon pulling the strings, keeping you prisoner in your own body.

Dean gripped the steering wheel, pulling the car around to the right down another street, "Yeah? And what does Ty think about all this?"

"Ty?" she asked, surprised.

"Yeah, the girl you're possessing." Dean reminded her sharply, "I know she's still in there and, if I know her at all, she's probably been screaming at you night and day. What's she got to say?"

"She swears like a sailor." the demon grumbled and Dean almost laughed. That was definitely his Ty, alright.

"Can't imagine she's too happy about this arrangement." Dean continued, keeping his voice neutral, wondering if the demon would continue this "honest" game.

Dean watched out of the corner of his eye while the demon's eyes flicked back and forth nervously. Finally, she turned to face him more directly, pulling one leg up under her on the seat, "Okay, so at the moment, no, she's not exactly pleased. But see, I've been spending all my time working on you, so I really haven't had a chance to convince her. You might not know this, but this girl has got a lot of insecurities, especially when it comes to you. I'm sure that once I explain to her about how I can help with all that, she'll like the arrangement, too."

Now Dean actually did laugh.

"You think you're actually going to be able to convince her to like having a demon possessing her?" he asked incredulously.

She shrugged, "Wouldn't be the first time."

Dean's laughter stopped abruptly. It hadn't really occurred to him that the bull she was spinning was even a possibility, but now that she mentioned it, he couldn't deny that there were some sick freaks out there who actually did invite demons in. He'd had a run-in with such a cult once before with his dad. But he'd never thought that it was anything like this. It couldn't be. Those were just sick wackos, nothing like Ty.

"Ty would never go for that." Dean denied out loud.

"You might be surprised." the demon replied. She glanced out the window, then raised her arm and pointed, "There's our guy."

Dean looked where she was pointing, then double-checked that he was looking at the right spot, "You've got to be kidding me."

Ty shook her head, "Nope. He's a cocky son of a bitch, that's for sure. Wonder if I know him."

Dean dismissed her curious musing and stared up ahead at the building in front of him as he slowly pulled into the parking lot.

"But a church?" he asked again, still not sure he had this right.

"Looks like." Ty nodded.

Dean put the Impala in park, "But what happened to all that holy ground, no demons here crap?"

Ty shrugged, "They don't build 'em like they used to? All I know is that this place is unguarded. I could feel it by now if it were. Which means that anyone inside..."

"...is in 'cry like Sammy when he watches Titanic' kind of trouble." Dean finished, quickly getting out of the car.

Ty followed suit on the other side, glancing at Dean over the top of the car, "He cries when he watches Titanic?"

"Like a baby." Dean nodded, transferring his gaze from the church to the car as he moved towards the trunk, "Every time."

"Huh." Ty said, coming to join him as he pulled up the false floor to reveal the arsenal underneath, "You know I always thought we could use that flick to torture people in hell."

"It'd work on me." Dean acknowledged, looking over his options in the way of weaponry.

He picked up a gun and tucked it into his jeans even though he knew it wouldn't do him much good against his current adversary. The flask of holy water, though, might be a bit more effective. Dean quickly twisted off the cap and sniffed the contents just to make sure it was the holy water flask and not the fun flask with his whiskey in it.

"Got your trusty exorcism?" Ty asked, leaning against the trunk.

Dean pulled the journal out of his pocket that he'd grabbed from Sam's room earlier and held it up.

"Good." Ty said, pushing off the trunk and heading towards the church, "Let's go."

Meanwhile, Sam and Alex sat in his truck down the street from the police station. Both were watching the activity around the building while mulling over their own thoughts.

"This sucks." Alex finally broke the silence, "We shouldn't be sitting here staring at a bunch of cops while Dean's out there with two demons."

"You don't have to tell me." Sam agreed.

"Then, what the hell are we doing here?" Alex demanded, "What good are these police reports? We've already found the guy."

Sam continued to look at the station in silence. After another moment of him looking out the window while Alex looked at him expectantly, he grabbed his cell phone out of his pocket and quickly began texting, "You're right, Alex."

Alex shifted in his seat expectantly, "So, where are they?"

"Hang on." Sam said, pressing buttons rapidly.

"What hang on? Just ask him where he is already!" Alex pressed.

"Wouldn't work." Sam replied after he'd hit send, "In case you haven't noticed, my brother's pretty damn stubborn."

"So what'd you say?" Alex asked.

"He threw his favorite gun in my bag on accident. I told him if he didn't tell me where they are, I'd give it to you." Sam replied with a grin that only got wider when his phone buzzed in his hand. He quickly opened the message, "He loves that gun. Let's go."

Alex wasted no time complying, his tires squealing as he hauled the truck around and sped off in the opposite direction.

Ty paused before the church doors, throwing an annoyed look over her shoulder at Dean when his cell phone beeped obnoxiously. Dean quickly fished the phone out of his pocket.

"Oh, god." Ty complained when she realized that he was actually stopping to read the message.

"You can call me Dean." he replied to her complaint, "It's Sam."

Ty sighed and turned to lean her back against the side of the church, crossing her arms and waiting for Dean to hurry up. She watched as Dean's eyes widened and his mouth turned down in a frown before he rapidly texted Sam back. He then gruffly shoved the phone back in his pocket and looked up at Ty. Rather than say anything, she just raised her eyebrows at him.

"Sam and Alex will be here soon." he reported.

"Tell me you don't want to sit around on our asses and wait for them." Ty pleaded.

"I don't. Come on." Dean replied, shoving the wooden double doors to the church and heading inside.

"Subtle." Ty commented before she quickly followed.

Inside the church, they found that rather than walking into some kind of chaos with people screaming and hiding in the pews, they had simply disrupted a sermon. Dean and Ty both froze, faced with dozens of pairs of eyes glaring at them for entering so loudly. Dean offered them an apologetic smile and they all slowly turned back to face the preacher who resumed speaking on God's mysterious ways.

"That went well." Ty hissed.

"Shut up." Dean replied under his breath, leading the way away from the entrance and along the back wall to find a spot in one of the empty pews in the back, "How was I supposed to know he hasn't made his move yet?"

"I don't know. Maybe you could have looked first." Ty retorted.

"How about you quit giving me shit and ID our guy?" Dean growled.

An old woman a few rows ahead of them turned and shushed them angrily. Flustered, Dean grabbed one of the hymnals from the plastic holder nailed to the back of the pew before them and opened in front of his face.

"Great. Now thanks to you Jesus lady's going to be watching me like a hawk." Dean accused as quietly as he could.

"Relax." Ty whispered in reply, leaning over to hide behind the hymnal with him, "I'm sure she'll like you a lot more once you save her from a murdering demon. Speaking of which, looks like he's tired of the Jesus babble."

Ty nodded her head towards the other side of the church where a man had stood up and was moving out of his pew, making his way along the far side of the church towards the pulpit.

"Shit." Dean swore under his breath.

"I can hold him for you to work your Latin magic, but you might want to get these people out of the way." Ty suggested.

Dean jumped to his feet and the movement attracted the demon's attention, making him pause just a few feet from the front of the church where the confused preacher was still trying to continue with his message. They locked eyes for a moment, recognizing each other for what they were. Then, the demon sprinted and leaped at the preacher, knocking him from the pulpit.

"Everybody out of here!" Dean yelled.

Everyone in the church got to their feet, forcing Dean to climb onto the pew to see over them. Unfortunately, they were not listening to his command, but were milling about in confusion. It didn't seem to matter though because those that did move for the door found that it was sealed tight.

Cursing under his breath some more, Dean leaped down from the pew and shoved his way through the crowd towards the front of the church. Ty followed after him, letting him take the lead on this even though she knew that she could solve a lot of their problems rather quickly if she used some of her power. However, she figured that Dean probably wouldn't like it if she hurt the church-goers. But with any luck, maybe this other demon would do it for her.

When Dean and Ty finally reached the front of the church, the demon was holding a knife to the preacher's throat. A few people were closing in on him, trying to stop him, but when he looked up and his eyes shown pitch black at them, they all stumbled back. Dean pushed past them, facing the demon. Ty turned to face them.

"Get back. Move everyone back now!" she commanded.

"About time you hunters caught up to me." the demon growled at Dean. The demon's black eyes widened, however, when Ty turned around, "You're not a hunter."

"Sorry, no." Ty agreed with a grin, letting her eyes turn black as well for a moment.

The demon threw his arm out and everyone in the room found themselves flying backwards. Dean scrambled back to his feet quickly, surprised to find that Ty was still holding her ground. The demon's black eyes narrowed as he glared at her.

"I know you." he realized.

"Swell." Ty drawled.

The demon's face contorted with anger although his eyes of course showed nothing, "Insubordination wasn't enough? Now you're fighting with them against your own kind!"

"As much fun as I'm sure this conversation is going to be," Ty said, rolling her eyes, "Dean, how about we get this rolling?"

The demon tightened his hold on the preacher, his eyes locking on the journal Dean pulled out of his jacket as he came to stand next to Ty.

"I can slice his throat faster than you can exorcise me." the demon threatened.

"You think I care?" Ty replied, "Dean, start reading."

Dean shot her a sharp look, which Ty met with a level stare. She was well aware that Dean actually did care if the preacher wound up dead, but she was in charge at the moment so he'd just have to trust her on this. The whole situation was frankly rather satisfying for her. Not only had she taken the lead on this, forcing Dean to take orders from her on a hunt, but he was forced to trust her. She really couldn't have set this up better if she tried. She really owed this demon a thank you. Too bad she was about to help end him.

Dean reluctantly began reading the Latin ritual. The demon's eyes widened slightly in surprise and his hand tightened on the knife. Ty was vaguely aware of the commotion behind her from the other church-goers, but as long as they remained out of the way, they hardly mattered. Actually, Dean would probably be pleased if she kept down the collateral damage, no matter how boring that made this job. So, Ty focused on the "bad guy" in front of her. While Dean began chanting the exorcism, she began chanting as well. In the meantime, she reached out a hand and, with her power, took hold of the preacher. Yanking her arm to the side, she ripped the preacher out of the demon's grip and threw him aside. The demon's knife slid across his throat, splitting the skin, but she'd obviously caught him by surprise since it wasn't really deep enough to kill him. However, the force of the impact with the wall probably did knock the reverend unconscious. Ty mentally rolled her eyes, knowing she'd have to check on him later if she wanted to keep Dean happy. But not now.

"You bitch." the demon growled as Ty's continued chanting immobilized him.

Ty would have responded with a scathing remark, but the demon was fighting her with all his strength and it took all her concentration to hold him.

'_He's tricking you_.'

If she hadn't been so preoccupied, she would have groaned. The last thing she needed right now was for the pesky hunter she was occupying to pipe up.

'_He's trying to keep you distracted_.' Ty insisted stubbornly.

"Shut up." she growled out loud, feeling her hold slipping from her lapse in focus.

'_Hey, if you screw this up and get Dean killed..._' the real Ty snapped in her head, '_Look, just pay attention. Can't you hear that?_'

She knew she was risking the demon breaking free and losing this chance to exorcize him, but she took a moment to try and hear what Ty was talking about. At first all she heard was the noise of the panicked humans in the building with them. Then, she heard the angry rumble of thunder. The sneaky bastard was calling a storm down on their heads! Cursing to herself, she wondered if it was already too late to stop the impending bolt of lightning that would strike this place and set it on fire.

Ty screamed as she suddenly found herself being rapidly pushed backwards. Her feet dragged along the carpeting that ran down the center of the church and she cried out when she impacted with someone behind her who didn't get out of the way fast enough. A second later, her back impacted with the sealed church doors. She tried to fight back, shake off the force that was holding her, but she'd slipped up and the demon had broken free. He was thirty feet away at the front of the church, but his hand was closing around her throat, crushing her windpipe as he lifted her further off the ground.

Ty's eyes widened as she struggled. Sure, killing this body wouldn't kill her, but it was definitely not what she had planned nor was it much fun to experience. She locked eyes with Dean, who had stopped reading and was torn between running over to try to help her and staying put and finishing the job. Ty tried to communicate with her eyes that he needed to focus on the demon, not on her, since she couldn't hope to get the words out. Somehow Dean seemed to get it because he whirled back around to face the demon, his flask in his hand. The demon screamed when the holy water hit him, jumping back away from Dean. The distraction also caused him to lose his hold on Ty and she fell to the ground, coughing as she tried to refill her lungs with air. One stupid churchgoer approached, placing a hand on her back and moving to help her back to her feet. Ty looked up quickly with demonic eyes.

"Get away from me!" she growled, her voice a scratchy rumble because of the recent abuse it had taken.

Her would-be helper cried out and hurriedly backed away, pulling his hands back from Ty as if she'd burned him. Ty ignored his response and painfully climbed back to her feet. Dean was currently holding the other demon at bay by continuing to douse him with holy water, but he could only keep that up for so long. She needed to help him finish this now before this whole church became a scorch mark on the ground. Her body didn't much feel like it, but she forced it to run over to join Dean as if nothing had happened. Thankfully, her demonic powers would preserve this body from too much harm as long as she remained in it.

"Dean." she said as she came up behind him to warn him of her approach.

Dean glanced quickly back at her. He kept reading the exorcism, but she could see the question in his eyes.

"I'm alright." she assured him, "But you'd better talk faster if you want to get rid of this guy before things get a lot hotter."

Dean raised an eyebrow in confusion.

"The storm outside. It's him. And we've got probably thirty seconds before lightning strikes and this building goes up like a Christmas tree." Ty explained.

"Shit." Dean swore, before stepping up his recitation.

Ty began intoning Latin again herself, trying to reestablish her hold on the other demon. He just laughed and started speaking Latin himself. Ty scowled when she realized that he was overriding her spell, that he was more powerful than she was.

"Dean!" Ty exclaimed, dropping the Latin since it was hopeless, "I can't hold him!"

"Then get them out of here!" Dean snapped in between calling on the name of God and banishing this evil for the tenth time. The words were like nails on a chalkboard to her, but at least they weren't directed at her.

"Dean!" Ty protested.

"Do it!" Dean commanded, glaring at her.

"Fine." she sighed, before running back across the church towards the doors again. Grabbing hold of the handles, she pulled on them with all her might, yelling with the exertion. Her eyes changed again as she tapped into her demonic strength to rip the doors free from their supernatural binding. The heavy wooden doors flew back, slamming against the walls, and Ty released her hold, stumbling backward as the resistance disappeared.

"Get out!" she yelled at the cowering congregation.

After what they had already seen, the people hardly needed Ty's soulless eyes to get them running for safety. Soon the church was empty except for Ty, Dean, the demon and the unconscious preacher. Ty swore when she remembered that fourth presence. She glanced at the black clouds amassing outside before turning back towards Dean. Her hair was already frizzing from the gathering electricity. There was really no more time for this.

Ty ran back to the front of the church and grabbed hold of Dean's arm, dragging him back towards the exit as he continued to yell Latin at the demon. The storm outside was getting so loud that despite his yelling, Dean's voice was almost lost as soon as the words left his mouth. The church doors slammed repeatedly as the wind caught them.

Dean shouted the final word of the exorcism at the top of his lungs. The demon at the front of the church fell to his knees as his mouth flew open and black smoke billowed out. At that same instant, lightning struck the church, shaking the building as the bolt of electricity ripped through the roof and straight into the floor. Dean and Ty were both knocked to the ground by the force of the energy coursing through the building. The light bulbs all exploded and the room plunged into darkness save for the flames that were already spreading from the strike area.

"Ty!" Dean yelled.

"Here!" Ty yelled back, "I'm okay!"

The wind was becoming so strong that the flames were leaping across the room, spreading with an unnatural speed. It didn't matter that the demon had been exorcised. It was already too late to stop this. The light of the fire illuminated Dean as he climbed back to his feet. He held out his hand and Ty grabbed it, letting him pull her up beside him.

"We have to get out of here!" Ty insisted.

"Go!" Dean nodded, shoving her towards the door, "I'll be right behind you!"

Ty wasn't fooled for a second. She knew Dean had every intention of fighting his way through the fire and debris to get the preacher and the formerly possessed man. She also knew that there was no way he could get both of them out of the building before the wind and the fire caused it to collapse.

"Damn it, Dean!" she snapped.

She used her powers again, snagging Dean with them and propelling him out the open doors, ignoring his yells of protest. She then latched onto the two unconscious bodies at the other end of the church and yanked them through the fires and out the doors. She figured that any burns they might sustain were a small price to pay for their lives. They were lucky she even bothered considering that the flames were closing in on her now and she could hear the telltale creaking of the support beams. Ty turned and ran for the door, knowing she was already pressing her luck. Chunks of the ceiling were already falling and one narrowly missed Ty as she sprinted out of the church.

Dean caught her as she ran outside. She looked up and their gazes locked for a second. She almost smiled because the look he was giving her was the sort of look she was sure was meant for the real Ty. Not wanting to ruin it, she turned around to look back at the church. As they watched, half of the roof caved in and the fire leaped up to capture it. Thunder rumbled angrily again and the clouds suddenly burst, dropping rain on them. Ty looked up into the falling water, letting it splash across her face. Only demon storms started with wind, lightning, and thunder and then rained once the damage was done, washing away the evidence, making it seem like a normal freak accident.

"Dean!"

Dean and Ty both turned to see Sam and Alex running over to join them.

"Are you okay?" Sam asked when he'd joined them, his wide eyes taking in the ruins of the church and the two unmoving forms lying prone on the ground nearby.

Dean nodded, "Yeah. We're alright. Check them."

Sam nodded, but his eyes swept over them both critically before he turned and went to check the preacher and the other man.

Alex stared at the church, which was now giving off thick black smoke as the rain fought the fire for dominance. Even though the sky was still overwhelmed with dark clouds, the burning church was sure to attract attention.

"We need to get the hell out of here." Alex said, "Now."

Dean ignored him and turned towards Sam where he was kneeling next to the reverend, "Sam?"

"He needs a doctor, Dean!" Sam called back.

Dean swore and pulled out his cell phone, dialing 911, "Lightning struck the church on 5th and Turner. We need a fire truck and an ambulance. There's some people hurt."

The operator started speaking again, but Dean hung up.

"Let's move them out of the rain, then get out of here." he instructed.

He almost didn't need to say anything; Sam was already moving the preacher, picking him up in a fireman's carry and taking him across the parking lot to the overhang of the nearest building. Alex followed suit, picking up the other guy and following Sam.

Ty caught the distant wail of sirens, "Time to go."

Behind them, the walls of the church finally gave out and the resulting crash made them all jump. Taking that as impetus to get moving, Dean and Ty both ran for the Impala.

"Sam!" Dean yelled over the car when he reached the driver's door.

"I'll ride with Alex! Go! We'll meet you at the hotel!" Sam called back, waving his arms at Dean to encourage him to get going.

Dean nodded and ducked into the car, shutting the door quickly to keep the rain out. Ty was already waiting inside and they wasted no more time getting out of there, trusting that Sam and Alex would be following shortly. Ty beamed at Dean as he sped back towards the hotel.

"See? Wasn't that fun?"


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter Ten:

A/N: Well, here's the long-awaited chapter. However, I'm afraid that I may not have lived up to all the suspense. I don't know, but I'm not really happy with this chapter. Any comments or criticisms are welcomed. This song is "When the Bullet Hits the Bone" by Earrings Golden. I've been wanting to use this song for awhile because it just seems to Supernatural to me. Thanks to everyone still sticking with me on this.

Chapter Ten: The Twilight Zone

_Somewhere in a lonely hotel room  
There's a guy starting to realize  
That eternal fate has turned his back on him..._

It's 2 A.M. the fear has gone  
I'm sitting here waiting the gun still warm  
Maybe my connection is tired of taking chances

Yeah there's a storm on the loose  
Sirens in my head  
Wrapped up in silence all circuits are dead  
Cannot decode my whole life spins into a frenzy...

Help I'm stepping into the twilight zone  
Place is a madhouse feels like being cloned  
My beacon's been moved under moon and star  
Where am I to go now that I've gone too far  
Help I'm stepping into the twilight zone  
Place is a madhouse feels like being cloned  
My beacon's been moved under moon and star  
Where am I to go now that I've gone too far  
So you'll come to know  
When the bullet hits the bone  
So you'll come to know  
When the bullet hits the bone

"Fun? Are you freaking nuts?" Dean demanded.

"What?" Ty shrugged, "We're all fine and the demon's gone. That's a win, right?"

"_That_ demon's gone." Dean corrected, taking his eyes off the slick roadway long enough to glare at her, "And Ty got hurt."

She rolled her eyes, "She's fine. As long as I'm in here, she's safer than ever."

Dean didn't reply because, although that might be true for now, if...no, when he did get the demon out of her, Ty would be left with all the consequences of the demon's recklessness. He'd seen it before when they had exorcised Meg.

"You really need to lighten up, Dean." Ty commented casually, "I know you got off on that hunt as much as I did."

"You need to stop talking." Dean growled.

"You know, Ty actually helped us out in there, too. She's the one who caught on to the fact that he was playing me and calling up that storm. I think we make a pretty good team, the three of us."

Dean ignored her, reaching out and switching on the radio. The storm made the reception a little fuzzy, but Dean really didn't care. He just needed some noise to drown out both Ty and his own thoughts. Because she wasn't completely wrong. He knew that. And the more he thought about it, the more it was bothering him that he couldn't deny it. She was right that Ty was stronger and more impervious to harm when she was possessed. She was also right that they hadn't done so badly on that hunt. Without a Devil's Trap, he would probably have been hard-pressed to pull off that exorcism without her. And damn if fiery ruins weren't cool, but none of that was the point. The point was that she was a demon, a demon pulling the strings of Ty's body like she was nothing more than a puppet. Accepting the situation just wasn't an option.

Ty sighed when she realized that Dean was going to try to ignore her. Adrenaline from the hunt was still coursing through Ty's body and, while she was in it, it affected her, too. She didn't want to sit here quietly. She was already bored just thinking about it. Well, if Dean wouldn't talk to her, she knew someone who would.

'_Thanks for the help_.' she directed inwardly.

She almost smiled at the stunned silence that met her comment. She could feel the young hunter's confusion before she finally replied, '_You're welcome?_'

'_I'm serious_.' she insisted.

'_Okay_.' Ty acknowledged, her thoughts still cautious, '_And_ _why are you telling me this?_'

'_Well, like it or not, we're in this together. I figured that sooner or later, the two of us should probably talk. Plus, I'm bored_.'

'_In this together?_' Ty repeated incredulously, '_You freaking stole my body!_'

The demon rolled her eyes, '_You humans just can't share, can you?_ _Has it ever occurred to you what this is all like for me? You've never been to hell, little girl. You have no idea what it's like. I think if you spent a few hundred years down there, you'd do whatever it took to get back on this plane, too._'

'_So_ _what? I'm supposed to feel sorry for you?_'

'_I don't want your pity_.' the demon scoffed, '_I have everything I want from you already_.'

If Ty were in control of her body, she would have smirked, '_If that were true, we wouldn't be talking._'

The demon paused before she responded. It was possible that she'd been a little lapse in her control over the hunter and had let her see and hear a little too much.

'_Alright. Maybe there is something else I want_.'

'_And what makes you think I care?_' Ty challenged.

The demon smiled again and turned her gaze towards Dean, allowing Ty to see him, as well, '_I know you better than you think. Every insecurity, every fear, every doubt. Everything that you think you can never have...I can give it to you_.'

Ty took a long time to reply. Finally, she spat, '_Fuck you_.'

But not even her thoughts were all that strong. The demon's grin widened as she blocked Ty out again. Despite her denial, it was obvious that she would win out in the end. For one thing, she was already in Ty's body. It was just a matter of time before Ty gave up fighting her. Even if she wasn't lured by her promises, eventually she would beg for just the chance to experience anything again.

The Impala pulled in at the hotel and rumbled to a stop. Dean shut off the car and climbed out, apparently unconcerned by the rain, clearly still avoiding her even though there really wasn't anywhere else for him to go. He fidgeted next to the car, looking around for any sign of Sam and Alex. Ty got out and turned to lean against the vehicle, folding her arms atop the hood and gazing over the car at him. Resting her chin on her folded arms, she watched him in the light from the hotel as he waited impatiently for his brother, pacing back and forth with his hands shoved deep in his pockets. He glanced at her a few times, feelings the weight of her gaze, but maintained his silence. It was time for her to push things.

"She loves you, you know." the demon commented, knowing that would grab Dean's attention. Smiling, she let Ty in on the conversation, too, knowing it would mortify her.

Dean whirled around towards her, staring at her, "What?"

"Don't act surprised, Dean. You have to have known. She didn't want to tell you because she knows you're not the serious relationship type, but she's got it bad." she pushed her wet hair out of her face and rolled her eyes, "She's yelling at me for telling you."

Dean's eyes were wide, mouth slightly agape. He sputtered for a second, trying to respond, when Sam and Alex arrived. Sam met Dean's gaze as he climbed out of the truck and approached, raising his eyebrows questioningly. Dean shook his head, unable to even think about answering that question. In fact, he was almost thankful that Alex distracted him by being strangely pissed off.

"What the hell is your problem?" Alex growled.

It took Dean a second to figure out that the question wasn't being directed at him. He looked from Alex to Ty on the other side of the car in confusion.

Ty smiled faux-sweetly at Alex, straightening and walking around the car to join them, "What's the matter, Alex?"

"Was it him?" Alex snapped.

Dean looked to Sam, wondering if he knew what the heck was going on. Sam shook his head, just as out of the loop as he was.

"Didn't we have a talk about asking nicely?"

Alex lunged for Ty, but Dean caught him and pushed him back. Sam moved close, ready to step in and help if he needed to.

"Hey, hey." Dean said until Alex's eyes flicked towards him, "I don't know what the heck is going on here, but there's an innocent...okay, not innocent, but there's a girl between you and that thing in there."

Alex glanced at Dean and paused in his struggles. Rage still smoldered in his eyes as Ty grinned at him over Dean's shoulder, but he shoved Dean away and walked away from her.

"You know, Alex." Ty called after him. Alex stopped, but didn't turn around, "It wasn't him. Or was it? You know, I can't seem to remember."

"Alright. That's enough." Dean said, taking Ty by the arm and moving her away from Sam and Alex. Once they were a fair distance away, he turned her to face him, "We had a deal. Stop screwing with Alex. Hunt's over and I'm still not buying it, so get out."

"Now Dean, I don't think you're being honest with yourself. I know you like your women a little dangerous. Come on, you can tell me. You were getting a little bored with her, weren't you?"

"Don't push me." Dean growled.

"Or what?" Ty challenged, pulling her arm free from Dean's grip and backing up. She grinned at Dean, a flash of lightening illuminating her face even more, letting Dean stare into the black abyss of her eyes, "You want her Dean? Come and get her."

Dean had just enough time to think that he didn't like the sound of that when the street light illuminating that section of the parking lot emitted a groan and starting crashing down towards him. With a yell, Dean threw himself out of the way, rolling across the wet pavement. The street lamp crashed down, impacting painfully with the hood of the Impala, the light smashing as it did so and leaving Dean immersed in shadow. Dean cursed angrily. The bitch was already messing with his girl and now she'd hurt his car. She must have a death wish.

Sam and Alex both yelled, running towards him, but Dean couldn't waste any time. He knew that if he waited, he'd lose Ty. Spinning around, Dean searched the darkness for any sign of her. He barely caught movement around the corner of the building next door, moving down the street. He reached behind him, quickly pulling out his gun.

"Sam, exorcism! Get the stuff!" Dean yelled before sprinting after Ty.

Dean ran out into the street, whipping around looking for Ty. He spotted her about a hundred yards away, standing in the middle of the street like she was waiting for him. He turned to face her, his gun held tight in his hand, but pointed down at the street. He didn't want to have to use it, not if he could avoid it.

Ty smiled at him and started moving towards him. As she moved, the lights on either side of the street snuffed out, plunging the area around her into darkness. Dean frowned, adjusting his grip on his gun as he momentarily lost sight of her before she moved out of the shadow and back into the growing luminosity of the next street lights. But almost as soon as she reached the periphery of that circle of brightness, those lights snuffed out, too. Suddenly, all the street lights were starting to go out, one by one down the street towards Dean until he was swathed in darkness, too. Dean whirled around, momentarily blinded by the sudden change in lighting, blinking his eyes rapidly as he tried to adjust, his ears straining for some sound that would tell him where Ty was. The street was eerily silent but for the rain splashing against the ground.

"I don't want to fight you, Dean." Ty breathed in his ear, but when he spun back that direction, there was no one there, at least not within arm's length. The heat of her breath on his skin, quickly replaced by the chill night air, caused a shiver to run down his spine.

"We had a deal." Dean growled, still searching for her.

His eyes were slowly adjusting so that he could make out the darker outline of forms in the night.

"What is it you hunters like to say? Demons lie." Ty shrugged, grinning in the darkness, "Besides, we both know you were only playing along. You'd have exorcised me a long time ago if you'd had the chance."

"Damn right I would have." Dean growled, continuing to cast his gaze about, pretending to be completely blind still, and stumbling in Ty's general direction.

"But we also both know that part of you deep down would miss me if you exorcise me," Ty continued in a taunting, sensuous whisper, "that every time you're with her, you'll think about me."

Dean whirled around just as Ty was finishing her sentence, throwing his arms around her and trapping her against his chest. With her back pressed tight against him, his arms pinning her there, and his gun gripped tight in his right hand, Dean leaned over her shoulder and whispered back, "Sweetheart, I just wish I could put a bullet through your brain, just like your daddy."

Ty laughed although her voice was a little strained from the pressure of Dean's arms on her chest. Her head lolled back and eyes darker than the night around them looked up into his face, "Go ahead, Dean, if you think you've got the balls to go through Ty to get to me. But just so you know, you're not sounding so good and squeaky clean right now. You sure you're not coming over to my side?"

"Last chance. Get out." Dean growled.

"Make me."

"Fine." Dean agreed. He looked away from Ty, unable to see him in the dark, but trusting he was there, "Sam!"

Sam voice reached Dean through the darkness, familiar Latin words causing the girl in his hold to stiffen, then thrash violently. Dean was having trouble holding her. Scowling, he threw down his gun so he could use both his hands. Ty's back arched unnaturally, her body pulling away from him as her head craned back towards him. Her eyes were closed and the rainwater ran across her face and into her open mouth, her expression one of terrible agony, but she wasn't outwardly screaming.

"Ty?" Dean ventured.

Her eyes flew open and, even though he was expecting it, Dean almost jumped back when black, soulless eyes looked up at him.

"Sorry, Dean." she said with a smile, "It's just me."

With that she jerked free from his grip, snapping back upright again with an audible pop of her spine. The wind was picking up around them, making it almost impossible for Dean to hear Sam's chanting. Dean felt like he was being caught in the eye of a whirlwind and he feared that Sam was getting the brunt of the storm. If he made it out of this, Dean was really going to have to memorize the damn exorcism.

"I'm not leaving, Dean." the demon hissed and her voice hardly even sounded like Ty's, "You can either have both of us or neither."

"You know, I'm usually an all or nothing kind of guy, but in this case..." Dean grabbed the flask from his pocket and quickly spun off the cap, "I'm not settling."

With that, he splashed the contents on Ty, wincing at the scream of pain she issued. He mentally reminded himself it was the demon he was really hurting and splashed her again. Maybe if he could keep her distracted, it would take some of the heat off Sam.

"This is all your fault, you know!" the demon snarled at him. Despite himself, Dean couldn't help but listen even as he was mentally shouting at himself to ignore her, "You broke her Dean, left her wide open for this."

"Bullshit." Dean spat out, but inwardly he felt a pang of guilt. He was Dean Winchester, after all. Breaking hearts was sort of his motus operandi. And it wouldn't be the first time he'd put Ty in danger, caused her to be hurt both physically and emotionally. He'd never intended it, but it had happened any way.

The demon could practically smell the guilt and pain that coursed through him. She grinned at him, moving slowly again, circling him like a predator. Sam's words were being snatched away in the wind, but she could still feel them like whips. She ignored them, their power lessened by the force of her own, and focused on Dean.

"Really? Think so, Dean? 'Cause I'm in here, in her head, and I happen to think differently. It's a mess in here, really. She wants you so bad and yet she's convinced that she can never get you. Thinks you could never want a girl like her, not really. Actually, she's still trying to figure out what in the hell made you dumb enough to even look at her twice. She knows that someday you're going to wake up and come to your senses."

"Shut up!" Dean yelled, shaking his head fervently in denial.

The problem was that her words stung like the truth. Dean was good at reading people. He knew Ty was a little insecure when it came to the two of them. He'd just ignored it since it was easier to pretend like they were fine than deal with messy issues like that, issues that might force him into defining their relationship in order to work things out. When it all boiled down to it, Dean had been more concerned with avoiding the subject of him and Ty and what it all meant than with Ty herself. Dean scowled. He _had_ caused this. It _was_ his fault. But he'd be damned if he was going to just sit back and accept it.

"Then, there's you, Dean." the demon continued as if Dean hadn't said anything, "She's too good for you, really. She doesn't think so 'cause she's all infatuated, but you're all fucked up, aren't you? You don't even know how to love somebody, do you? Besides, little Sammy, of course. So, I guess she was right, you never could give her what she wants."

Dean gritted his teeth, wondering why the exorcism wasn't working like it usually did. Sam must be nearing the end by now. The demon should be screaming, not taunting him about how emotionally stunted he happened to be. Dean thought back on the demon asking him what he would do if an exorcism didn't work and wondered if maybe he was missing something. She was wearing a jacket, making it impossible for him to see her arms, to see if maybe she'd locked herself in Ty's body like Meg had locked herself in Sam's. But she'd been down to her bra when he'd discovered Ty's possessions and he hadn't noticed anything unusual. Could she be hiding the mark somewhere else? He had to find out.

"But you know what, Dean? I don't care about any of that. I like you all damaged. You want Ty without all the messy emotions, here's your solution." her grin turned into a shrewd smirk, "I know you like what I've got in mind. Don't..."

Dean didn't wait to hear any more. With a yell, he launched himself at her, knocking her to the ground. She instantly fought back, knocking the flask out of Dean's hand, but he managed to get a hold of both her arms and pin her down. She tested his hold a couple times, but he kept his position. And yet, she didn't seem all that concerned.

"Gee, Dean. I don't know if this is really the right time." she teased.

"Sam!" Dean yelled, ignoring her, "Could really use a little help right about now!"

Dean pressed his weight down on her, trying to keep her secure while he went for the holy water again. She saw what he was reaching for and thrashed beneath him to try and unseat him.

"Hold still, damn it!" Dean growled in frustration.

"What gives you the right?" the demon gasped, her eyes turning back to Ty's blue again, "You're not perfect either, Dean! How come you get to live up here and I can't?"

"Freaking chatty demon bitches." Dean swore, his fingers finally closing around the flask.

"Before you knew it was me, Dean, you liked me better. Admit it!" she demanded, "Everything that was different about Ty, it excited you."

Dean continued talking to himself to drown her out, "Can never go quietly. No, that'd be too freaking easy."

"We're the same, Dean! That's the only reason you're fighting me so hard. You know we're the same." she insisted, staring wide-eyed up at him as he lifted the flask to her face.

A few drops fell from the flask, splashing onto her cheek. She cringed like he'd punched her. It was hard to watch; Dean didn't particularly like the feeling that he was hurting Ty.

"Why aren't you exorcised yet?" he demanded, holding off on spilling any more holy water on her.

A small smile graced her lips, "Oh, Sam stopped saying it a few minutes ago. Alex stopped him."

A muscle in Dean's jaw jumped as he gritted his teeth in anger, glancing in the direction he'd come from, where he assumed Alex and Sam must be, he bellowed, "Alex!"

"He won't let you exorcise me." Ty said smugly, "He can't."

"Why?" Dean snapped, checking himself to keep from grabbing her forearms and shaking her, "What have you got on him?"

"I'm his only lead on who murdered his parents." she revealed. She leaned her head back to glance back down the street. Dean looked up and saw Alex running towards him with Sam in pursuit.

"Dean!" Sam yelled.

"Dean!" Alex interrupted before Sam could say any more, halting next to them, "You can't! Not yet! She knows, Dean. She knows. You have to make her tell me."

"What are you talking about, Alex?" Sam asked, coming up behind him.

"You can't make me, Dean." Ty asserted confidently, "There's nothing you can do to make me tell him. Except...let me have this body."

Dean looked from the smirking demon to Alex. Genuine pain and desperation shown in the kid's eyes and now that Dean knew what was going on with him, he had to relate. If it were him, he knew he wouldn't be able to stand idly by as his only lead on who killed his parents disappeared before his eyes. But there was no way he could compromise on this. He couldn't let this demon have Ty. Even if that was an option, it wasn't his decision to make. He couldn't sentence someone else to a life as a slave to a demon.

"Alex, I'm sorry..." he began, then drifted off, unable to think of anything to say that would make this any easier.

"Wow." Ty commented sarcastically, "That's touching."

"Shut up!" Dean snarled, his grip tightening on her unconsciously, "You want a permanent meat puppet? Take me."

"Dean!" Sam cried in protest.

Ty looked up at Dean in surprise, "Dean. That was certainly unexpected."

"Well," Dean continued quickly in frustration, "we got a deal? You can have me if you leave Ty alone and tell Alex what he needs to know."

"Dean, you can't." Sam insisted, pushing past Alex.

"What's going on in that head of yours, Dean?" Ty asked, cocking her head as she looked at him, ignoring Sam, "No, I get it. Self-sacrifice is kind of your thing, too, isn't it?"

"You got about ten seconds before I exorcise your ass!" Dean snapped, entirely too sick of hearing her tell him about his less than desirable traits.

"Cut the crap, Dean!" the demon snapped back, "I'm holding all the cards here, so get the freaking holy water out of my face! You wanna deal? Fine. But it's on my terms. Now, let me up."

Slowly, Dean pulled the flask away, setting it down on the ground nearby and backed up so she could sit up. Ty nodded her approval.

"Good. Now, as much fun as it might be to take you out for a spin, I kinda like the arrangement we have now. Here's the deal, I stay in Ty, but every once in awhile, I'll let her out to play. You don't try any exorcisms and I'll tell Alex who offed his parents."

Dean just stared at her. He didn't know what to say. They were screwed. That's all there was to it.

"Let us talk to Ty first." Sam piped up suddenly.

Dean glanced at his brother. He didn't know what he had in mind, but he trusted him. Maybe Sam saw something he didn't.

The demon sighed in exasperation, then fell silent. Her head dropped to her chest for a second, her hair falling in front of her face. Dean watched expectantly, reminding himself to be wary of another trick.

Ty gasped and her head snapped back up. Her eyes were wide as she looked around quickly.

"Ty?" Dean asked. When she didn't immediately reply, he grabbed her chin and turned her face back towards him, "Ty? That you?"

She nodded quickly, "Dean! What's going on? She blocked me out..."

"Ty," Sam interrupted quickly, "she's got the upper hand. We need your help if we're going to get out of this. You have to hold her."

Dean glanced up at his brother, "Dude, you want her to...?"

"No time." Sam shook his head, refusing to explain. He grabbed the journal and started reading quickly.

"Shit!" Dean exclaimed, quickly pinning Ty back down again. Apparently, Sam was hoping that springing the exorcism on the demon might give them a chance. Unfortunately, Dean was pretty sure that the demon was expecting something like this and wouldn't be sitting idly by. Sam seemed to be hoping that Ty could hold the demon long enough for them to finish the ritual, but Dean wasn't sure. Their father had barely been able to maintain control of the Yellow-Eyed Demon for a few seconds after he'd been shot. They were asking Ty to fight her for at least a solid minute, no matter how fast Sam read. Plus, they were kissing Alex's chance for retribution goodbye. Well, it couldn't be helped. They had to save Ty. He'd personally help Alex track the son of a bitch down later, if he had to.

"Ty! Listen to me!" Dean yelled as she twisted beneath him, "You have to fight her. If you can keep her busy for just a minute, we can get you out of this."

"Dean..." Ty panted, her hands clawing at the ground, "I can't...she's too strong."

Dean shook his head, "You can. Come on. I know you. No one pushes you around. Not me and certainly not some damn demon."

Ty cried out in pain and her eyes flashed black for just a second before they were blue again, "Can't..."

"Damn it!" Dean growled. They needed more time! Thinking quickly, he decided to try something else, "You want to be a hunter? Then, prove yourself, damn it! Don't tell me you can't handle one little demon."

Dean almost laughed hysterically when Ty managed to glare at him in the midst of her struggle to keep the demon at bay.

"That's right, sweetheart. Get good and mad. You wanna deck me? You're gonna need your body to do it." Dean continued to taunt her.

Ty growled angrily, but she was still contorting in his hold. She squeezed her eyes shut and Dean was almost certain that when she opened them again, the demon would be looking up at him.

"Sammy! Little faster!" he called.

Sam took a deep breath, then began reading again, the words spilling out of his mouth so quickly, Dean hardly even recognized them. Dean shot a quick glance over at Alex, suddenly worried that he might try to stop them again. Thankfully, he was standing frozen, just staring, as if he couldn't move, but just watch what was unfolding. They could deal with him later.

Ty gasped again and her eyes flew open, back arching upwards just as Sam shouted the last words. Her eyes were black, but all the demon could do was scream as it was pulled from her body, billowing out of her mouth in a black cloud that chased her cries up into the night.


	11. Chapter 11

A/N: Song is Pink Floyd, but all the cool people reading this probably already know that. And look, I updated fairly quickly, too! Aren't I awesome? (Yeah, I know. I'm alright)

Chapter Eleven: Comfortably Numb

_Hello.  
Is there anybody in there?  
Just nod if you can hear me.  
Is there anyone home?_

_Come on, now.  
I hear you're feeling down.  
Well I can ease your pain,  
Get you on your feet again._

_Relax.  
I need some information first.  
Just the basic facts:  
Can you show me where it hurts?_

_There is no pain, you are receding.  
A distant ships smoke on the horizon.  
You are only coming through in waves.  
Your lips move but I can't hear what you're saying.  
When I was a child I had a fever.  
My hands felt just like two balloons.  
Now I got that feeling once again.  
I can't explain, you would not understand.  
This is not how I am.  
I have become comfortably numb._

Ty's body collapsed onto the concrete. The rain was letting up a little bit and the wind had certainly died down, but intermittent drops struck her face. Dean stared at her helplessly for a moment. Fear coursed through him for a moment as he thought that maybe the battle with the demon had actually killed her, that the demon's hold had been so strong that it had yanked her spirit out with it. How could he have let this happen?

A soft moan escaped Ty's lips, causing Dean to exhale in relief, finally releasing the breath he'd been holding unconsciously. He hastily moved off of Ty, fearing that his weight holding her down might be hurting her now.

"Is she okay?"

Dean glanced up at Alex's quiet question. Now that he knew what was motivating him, Dean felt bad about being such a jerk to him these past few days.

Ty groaned again, drawing Dean's attention back to her before he could respond. She was stirring a little bit now, too. Dean waiting expectantly for her to open her eyes.

"Dean?" Ty asked as her eyelids fluttered, finally exposing the bright blue irises that Dean had been waiting for.

"Right here." Dean responded quickly, grabbing her hand and helping her sit up. When that seemed to go okay, Dean slowly helped her back to her feet. Ty looked around at the three men standing around her, shivering slightly. Dean suspected it was from a combination of shock and the cold. He stepped closer to her, moving to draw her into an embrace to try and warm her up a little. Ty's eyes snapped to his face and she stepped back, pulling her hand free from his. Dean's brow furrowed in confusion, but Ty didn't offer any explanation and he had no idea what to say.

Ty backed up a few more steps, then turned and latched onto Sam. Surprised, Sam had to take a step back before he regained his balance. He looked at Dean over Ty's head before he slowly enfolded her in a loose hug.

"Sam?" Ty asked softly against the material of Sam's jacket.

"Yeah, Ty?"

"Can we go inside, please?"

"Yeah. Of course." Sam nodded quickly, "Come on."

Sam shot his brother another look before he guided Ty back towards the hotel. Dean just shrugged. He'd just saved the day, but apparently he'd done something wrong in the process because she didn't want to be anywhere near him. It was kind of infuriating really. Where was the gratitude? Whatever. Figuring out what went on in Ty's head was beyond him.

Sam and Ty moved slowly past Alex, who hadn't moved since the exorcism. Ty paused, reaching out and grabbing Alex's sleeve with one hand. Alex looked from her hand, up her arm to her face. He looked devastated, but he managed to raise an eyebrow questioningly.

"Alex," Ty said slowly, locking eyes with him, "it was her."

Alex stiffened, yanking his sleeve out of Ty's hand and stepping back, "What? How do you know?"

"Sometimes, when she wasn't paying attention to me, I could see what she was doing. And sometimes, I could kind of tell what she was thinking. When she was taunting you, I could tell. She...she thought about it." Ty said, looking away.

Alex stared at Ty incredulously, a multitude of emotions flashing across his face. Ty tried to think of something comforting to say, but she had no words. The demon's thoughts about Alex's parents hadn't been totally coherent, but Ty had gotten an impression about what had happened to them. She couldn't imagine what it was like to be Alex now, knowing that the thing responsible for that had just escaped him, sent back to hell until it could manage to crawl back out again.

Alex stumbled back a few more steps, still staring at Ty, before he finally turned and ran off into the night. Neither of the Winchesters nor Ty bothered to try and stop him. They all knew that nothing they could do or say would help him. Sam resumed their walk back to the hotel and Dean followed sullenly after them. He really should have known that exorcising the demon wasn't going to result in a perfectly, happy ending. There were still all kinds of complicated issues floating around, the very kind that Dean usually preferred to avoid by leaving town at high speeds with his radio blasting. Glancing over his shoulder in the direction Alex had gone, Dean wondered if the kid wasn't about to do the same thing. He wouldn't be surprised, nor would he blame him. Shaking his head and wishing for a beer, Dean paused before following Ty and Sam into the hotel building. His gaze latched onto his car, the street light still laying across the hood. Cursing again at the injustice of it, Dean debated whether he should bring it up with the hotel management. On the one hand, he might be able to get their rooms for free, but on the other he didn't really want to draw attention to the fact that a '67 Chevy Impala had been here. No sense in leaving any clues for the FBI. Besides, the jerks at the hotel would probably think he ran into the stupid pole anyway. Dean walked over to the Impala, carefully brushing some of the broken glass from the light bulb off of her. They'd have to stop by Bobby's so he could pound out the dent and fix up the paint.

"Don't worry, baby. You won't even have a scar, I promise." Dean soothed as he got in the car and carefully began backing out from under the pole.

He hadn't noticed before, but he was greatly irritated to find that the motorcycle Ty had lifted stood unscathed in the spot next to where the Impala had been parked. They were going to need to leave sooner rather than later if they wanted to avoid questions about the light pole and the motorcycle. He knew that Ty wouldn't be too happy about piling back into the car and getting back on the road right away, but it really couldn't be helped.

Dean re-parked the Impala on the other side of the lot, giving her a parting pat on the roof before he went inside. Sam and Ty were nowhere to be seen in the lobby, so Dean headed upstairs to their rooms, shaking some of the water out of his hair as he went. He could really use a hot shower and a good night's sleep, but he knew it was pointless to even think about it. They could maybe afford to take a quick shower and change their clothes before they left town.

Dean paused in the hallway outside of Sam and Alex's room. He could hear his brother and Ty talking inside. He debated whether he should leave them alone, join them or just eavesdrop, but decided he was too tired to dance around the problem at the moment. He might as well cut to the chase. So, without bothering to knock, he opened the door and strolled inside.

Conversation abruptly stopped when Dean walked in. Ty was sitting cross-legged on the bed next to Sam, a towel wrapped around her shoulders. Her eyes were glistening, like she was fighting back tears. When Dean entered, she glanced at him, then quickly looked away. That subtle reaction caused Dean to stiffen, halting in his tracks.

"Dean..." Sam began, standing up.

Dean cut him off before he could try to explain, try to give him some reason why he should just let them talk for a bit, "Don't 'Dean' me. What'd I do?"

Ty coughed as if she was startled by the question. Dean leaned to his right, cocking his head to try and catch her eyes, "Ty? Obviously something's wrong and it's got something to do with me. You've never had a problem yelling at me before, so out with it."

"Dude!" Sam protested, stepping over to Dean, attempting to pull him aside and talk some sense into him.

Dean shrugged him off, moving closer to Ty. Ty finally looked up at him, anger shining through her barely constrained tears. Dean held her gaze, settling his weight between his feet as if he were squaring off for a fight. The only difference being that in this case he was prepared to take whatever blows she intended to throw without trying to dodge or fight back. He probably had it coming.

"How could you not know?" she demanded in a furious whisper, "Couldn't you tell it wasn't me?"

And there it was. He'd been right. He did have it coming. He should have known. He'd sensed that something wasn't right, but had been too distracted by his own desires. Even though they hadn't spent an amazing amount of time together, he knew Ty. He should have been able to tell.

Rather than give her some excuse, Dean just shrugged. He knew it would just piss her off more, but he'd rather she decked him than try to justify his mistake.

Ty dropped the towel and stood up, holding Dean's gaze. He held his ground, waiting for the physical blow, but she made no move to hit him. She still looked angry, but he could almost feel the pain radiating off of her and knew that the anger was just a front.

"I know what I said before, but you know, I actually thought you cared about me." Ty said with a bitter, self-deprecating laugh.

Sam stared wide-eyed at his brother, willing him to say something, to reassure Ty that he did care. It was like witnessing a car crash; he was watching helplessly as his brother's chance for a real relationship crumbled before his eyes. It was really heartbreaking for him because Dean spent so much of his life trying to make it possible for other people to be happy. Sam just wished that Dean could experience some of that himself. No matter what Dean might say to the contrary, he knew that his brother really wanted more for himself than one-night stands. And yet, he knew that there was nothing he could do to help him. Dean had to do this himself or he'd never really solve anything. Unfortunately, Sam wasn't sure that Dean was ready to make that leap even if it meant losing Ty.

"Aren't you going to say anything?" Ty demanded, when Dean remained silent.

"What do you want me to say?" Dean asked in reply.

Ty growled in frustration and turned away, moving past Dean. Dean noticed as she moved by him that a bruise had risen on her neck, evidence of the earlier demonic battle in the church. He impulsively wanted to go to her, push her hair out of the way and examine the damage so that he could make sure she was okay, but he restrained himself.

"Shouldn't we be leaving or something?" Ty asked impatiently, crossing her arms over her chest, her back to Dean.

"Yeah," Dean nodded, "soon as we can."

"Fine." Ty agreed, heading for the bathroom, "I'll meet you at the car in a half hour."

Dean knew a dismissal when he heard one, but he waited until Ty shut the door firmly behind her before he turned to leave the room.

Sam fell in step with his brother, quickly following him down the hall. Dean glanced at him questioningly, but didn't say anything or stop his progress towards his room.

"Why won't you tell her?" Sam asked without any preamble.

"Tell her what?" Dean asked, pulling the key out of his pocket and opening the door to his room.

"How you feel about her." Sam elaborated, following Dean into the room.

"What good would that do?" Dean asked, shoving his clothes back into his bag.

Sam frowned, not pleased with Dean's more pessimistic than usual attitude. Grabbing the bag out of Dean's hand, Sam held it out of his brother's reach in order to command his attention, "A lot of good, Dean. She cares about you, Dean. But she needs to know that you care about her, too, before anything else can happen. You have to tell her, Dean, or you'll lose her."

Dean moved to grab the bag back, but Sam yanked it out of his reach again, using his superior height to his advantage. Dean glared at his brother, not amused in the least bit. He made another unsuccessful grab for his bag before he growled a frustrated response, "What's the point, Sam? What's the goddamn point?"

Sam lowered his arm, confusion crossing his features, "What do you mean, what's the point?"

"She's either gonna leave or she's gonna die, Sam!" Dean snapped.

Sam shook his head, his brow furrowed in concern, "The demon's gone, Dean. What makes me you think..."

"It doesn't matter." Dean denied, pacing back and forth with his anxiety, "I can't protect her. Being with me will always put her in danger. Hell, Sam. The yellow-eyed demon's gone and I still got her possessed."

"It's not your fault..." Sam began.

"Like hell it isn't." Dean interrupted, "The demon told me. She said that I made her vulnerable. I hurt her and it made her easy pickings for that evil bitch."

Sam stared at Dean, slightly dumbfounded at the conclusion his brother had reached, "Dean, it ever occur to you that maybe you hurt her by not talking to her?"

Dean snatched up his bag and resumed his packing, ignoring his brother. Sam sighed and gathered up a few of Ty's belongings to bring to her in case she wanted to change into some dry clothes. Sam hoped that maybe his words would make it through Dean's thick skull. Before Dean came in, Ty had managed to wrench some of her own feelings out into the open. She cared deeply about his brother. Sam knew that. Just as he knew that Dean cared deeply about her. The problem was, she couldn't see that like he could. Not after everything that had happened. She was convinced that Dean hadn't picked up on the demon sooner because he didn't really care about her, that the harsh words the demon had spewed about Dean preferring Ty possessed might be true. Nothing Sam could say would change her mind, either. She had to hear it from Dean.

"Brought you some clothes." Sam announced as he walked back in and heard that the water was no longer running.

"Just drop them inside the door please." Ty called back from inside the bathroom.

Sam complied, opening the bathroom door just enough to push the clothes through the opening before closing it again. Sam hoped that Ty and his brother could work things out, but he mentally prepared himself for the worst. He'd be sad to see Ty go. He really did like her. It was like having a sister around, especially when she took his side against Dean. And although Sam loved his brother, it was nice to have someone else to talk to. Sam frowned as he packed up his stuff, leaving out a change of clothes for himself. They couldn't go on like this forever, just the two of them against the world. Dean had to know that. Mentally, Sam added Ty to his list of covert contacts so that when Dean finally changed his mind, he could contact her.

Ty emerged from the bathroom a few moments later, toweling dry her hair. She paused when she saw Sam, taking in the sad, resigned look on his face. Ty knew what that look meant. They were taking her home.

Ty crossed the room and hugged Sam tightly. She would miss him. She wished that he didn't have to be a casualty caught in the crossfire of her self-destructing relationship with Dean, but there was no way around it. Nevertheless, she tried to express her regret in her embrace and hoped that Sam would get the message. A moment later, Ty pulled away, feeling a little embarrassed by her sentimentality. Not looking up, she forced a weak laugh.

"So, how screwed up am I, huh? Two demonic possessions in under a year. First, the yellow-eyed demon and now his daughter."

"You know, I was possessed by a demon since we saw you last." Sam revealed. He didn't like to talk about it, didn't like the half-formed memories it brought back to the surface, but he felt it was important to share with Ty. Judging from the wide-eyed look of surprise on her face, he was probably right, "Sister of this one, I guess. She called herself Meg when we first met her. Dean and I exorcised her, but she came back and possessed me. She made me do things...used me to get to other hunters. Thankfully, our friend Bobby caught on to her. He and Dean managed to exorcise her again."

"How did..." Ty began to ask, stunned by this new information.

Sam gave her a sad smile, "How did she get to me? Demons look for insecurities. They use our fears to worm their way in. I was afraid of what the yellow-eyed demon had planned for me, why he picked me and what it meant. Even though he's gone, it doesn't necessarily mean that my destiny's changed. Especially since I don't even know what it is. She used that to get to me."

Ty thought over Sam's words. Something he'd said had triggered a memory that was floating just below the surface and she struggled to reclaim it.

Sam misread her expression as doubt and tried to press his point home, "It's not your fault, Ty. None of this is your fault, okay?"

Ty shook her head, then held up a hand quickly before Sam could say anymore, "No, it's not that. The demon knew something about you. She said that everyone thinks your special except her. I think...I think you're supposed to lead them."

Sam shook his head, "To do what?"

Ty looked up apologetically, "I don't know. She didn't really think about that. She was just thinking that she's not following you."

Sam and Ty both fell silent as they digested this information, trying to unravel what it meant. Sam's frown deepened when he realized he still didn't have enough pieces of the puzzle to figure it out. Before he could press Ty any further, a loud knock sounded on the door.

"Hurry it up!" Dean called through the barrier.

"Fifteen minutes!" Sam called back. He turned back to Ty, "I don't know what this means, but it doesn't change anything."

Ty nodded her agreement, although she was sure that Sam had something else in mind when he said that, "No, it doesn't."

Ty caught Sam glance longingly towards the bathroom and smiled slightly, "Go ahead, Sam. I'll head downstairs and meet you at the car."

Sam studied Ty's face for a second before he accepted her proposal. He knew that she would have to face his brother again sooner or later, but he wasn't sure that she was ready for it just yet. However, her emotions were locked away, making it impossible for him to determine anything. Still, he couldn't really protect her from his own brother and whatever pain might accompany him, nor was it really his place to get any more involved than he already was. So, he nodded and headed to the bathroom for a quick shower of his own.

Ty watched him go, similar thoughts running through her mind. She couldn't use Sam as a shield any longer. As much as it might hurt and as raw as her wounds were still, she needed to face Dean.

Ty took a deep breath and mentally prepared herself. She found that she was psyching herself up for a fight and had to force herself to stop. She didn't want to fight. That would just make things worse.

"Come on, Ty. Just get it over with." she muttered, making herself take that first step out of the hotel room and then the next one down the hall. After those first few steps, she found the rest were much easier and all of a sudden she was outside again, standing in the predawn light that the retreating storm clouds had left behind, staring at the cause of everything as he leaned against his car. He hadn't noticed her yet or if he had, he hadn't acknowledged her. He was staring up at the sky, the lighter gray of the coming day washing over his face. Ty's breath hitched in her chest at the sight of him. The demon's voice echoed in her ears, repeating her insecurities back to her. Ty shook her head to be rid of the reminder and the movement caused Dean to look over at her.

_'It's tragic, really_,' Ty thought to herself as she found herself looking into his hazel eyes, feeling lost in them even though they were still some distance apart, '_you really do love him_.'

She'd told herself not to, told herself that it would only lead to heartbreak, but in the end, she just couldn't help it. It hadn't even taken that long. Maybe it had been pointless fighting it. Maybe she'd loved him all along and just hadn't known it, hadn't let herself believe it until the demon had made lying to herself impossible.

'_No!_' Ty silently yelled at herself, '_Stop this! It doesn't matter_.'

"Hey." Dean said quietly, drawing her attention away from her own inner turmoil.

He pushed away from the car, spreading his weight between his feet, shoving his hands in his pockets. Ty could see the tension in his posture, feel it between them like an invisible wall. It kept her from moving any closer to him and in the grander scheme of things, she supposed that was probably for the best.

"Hey." she replied for lack of anything better to say.

An awkward silence settled between them. Dean wanted to say a lot of things to her, most of them apologies for the millions of things he'd done wrong since he'd met her, but the words wouldn't come. Disgusted with his own shortcomings, he settled for, "Ready to go?"

Ty nodded mutely. She debated it for a moment, but decided to go ahead and ask, "Where are we going?"

If he said that they were heading back to Phoenix to take her home, she'd accept that as the end of it. And she knew that was probably what he was going to say, but she couldn't help but ask, just in case there was some slight chance that he might say something else.

"Figured we'd stop by Bobby's so I can fix up the car." Dean shrugged.

Ty mulled that answer over. He hadn't said he was taking her home, but he hadn't said they were going somewhere else, either. They were just stopping by at someone named Bobby's place. Where they were stopping on the way to, he hadn't said and she didn't want to press him. It wasn't a good answer, but it was one she could live with for the moment.

"I...uh...got all your stuff in the car." Dean said, glancing back at the Impala. He continued to avoid eye contact as he continued, "Bobby's place isn't too far, but we can stop somewhere on the way if you're hungry. I'll probably need to stop for gas anyway so..."

"Dean." Ty interrupted, "I'm fine."

Dean nodded, his eyes drifting down to rest on the pavement. He shifted his weight a bit before he said anything else and when he did speak, it was hesitant, "Maybe when we get there we could...I don't know...talk?"

Ty didn't want to agree to anything. She'd already reverted into self-defense mode and was unwilling to put herself in a position that vulnerable. Still, she wasn't yet able to deny him outright, so she settled for a noncommittal shrug. Where was Sam already? Hadn't it been fifteen minutes yet?

Ty picked at her sleeves and fiddled with the buttons on her cuffs, pretending she couldn't feel the weight of Dean's gaze on her until Sam finally emerged from the hotel. Neither noticed, but they both heaved small sighs of relief and moved to get in the car as Sam walked over. Sam noticed, but their similar reactions didn't amuse him like they normally did. In fact, this had to be one of the emptiest victories the Winchesters had ever had.

Alex's truck had been gone when Dean had gone down to the Impala, so they decided not to wait for him, but headed out for Bobby's. The drive was quiet. No one argued about the music, no one offered up any embarrassing stories, no one started name calling contests to pass the time. The silence made Ty want to cry, which frustrated her because she hated crying more than almost anything. Each passing minute devoid of conversation was another minute in which her bond with the boys died a little more. Besides that, the less distraction the boys provided, the more time Ty could spend thinking about what had just happened. As a result, Ty was immensely relieved when she felt exhaustion washing over her. She welcomed sweet sleep as it pulled down her eyelids, a sigh escaping her as she let it lead her away from her problems for just a little while.

That soft sound made Dean glance back at her. He, too, felt some measure of relief at seeing her curled up in the backseat, sleeping peacefully. Not only did the fact that she was asleep relieve some of the tension in the car, but Dean was glad that she was getting some rest. She definitely could use it after everything they'd been through.

He really wasn't sure what he should do about her now. Sure, there were some things that he had figured out pretty well. Did he care about her more than he probably should? Yes. More than all the other girls that he'd basically just used as distractions? Definitely. Did he want this life for her? Big resounding no. And it was more than just the hunting thing. Sure, he wished that she hadn't decided that this life of danger and tragedy was for her, but it was also him, specifically, that he felt had been a bad decision on her part. He wasn't the guy for her. Seriously. She'd pretty much said so herself back when she'd told him why Sam got girlfriends and he just got girls. And even if he wanted to be more for her, he just didn't know how. The damn demon had been right about that much, at least.

He could explain things to her. He could tell her that he'd known something was wrong the whole time she'd been possessed, but that he'd been denying it because he hadn't wanted to accept the possibility that he might end up like Sam and Madison. He'd already caused Ty's death once. That was bad enough. He didn't know if he could do it again, especially not if he had to be the one holding the gun. So, he'd ignored his instincts, justifying the discrepancies in her character as results of all the emotional trauma she'd been through rather than something more sinister. But why tell her any of that? What was the point when she was probably better off without him and this was a convenient means of driving her away? Dean's hands tightened on the steering wheel and he tensed a little in his seat as he thought about how this would probably play out. Ty would most likely end up hating him and Sam would harass him for months about it no doubt, but it had to be done.

Dean put a tight lid on his own emotions, locking down his own feelings so that they wouldn't get in the way of what he had to do. He'd do it once they got to Bobby's. That would give him enough time to push down his feelings for Ty so that he could look her in the face when he ended it. Frowning, Dean wished that he could fight another demon instead.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter Twelve:

Chapter Twelve: It Slips Away

_Measuring a summer's day, I only finds it slips away to grey,  
The hours, they bring me pain._

Tangerine, Tangerine, Living reflection from a dream;  
I was her love, she was my queen, And now a thousand years between.

Thinking how it used to be, Does she still remember times like these?  
To think of us again? And I do. 

Ty woke up when the Impala's engine cut out. She pushed herself up off the pile of bags and clothes she was curled up on, rubbing her eyes. They were parked in front of an old house, situated in front of what looked like a junk yard. Dean glanced back at her before getting out of the car.

"This Bobby's place?" Ty asked Sam.

"Yep." Sam nodded, watching his brother walk up to the house where Bobby was waiting on the porch, "You'll like Bobby. He's been like a father to us. He's a great hunter, too. Knows pretty much everything there is to know about the supernatural."

Ty nodded. She was sure that Sam was right, that she would like Bobby, but frankly, at the moment, she was a little preoccupied with the situation between her and Dean. She got out of the car, hurrying to follow Dean up to the house.

"Bobby!" Dean called in greeting, clapping a graying, burly man in a trucker hat on the back.

"Dean." Bobby nodded. He pulled away, looking Dean over, then glancing past him towards the car, "You boys alright? What happened to your car?"

"We're fine. My baby took a blow for me, though." Dean said, glancing back at his car himself. He caught sight of Ty approaching, "Bobby, this is Ty."

"Ty?" Bobby asked, a little surprised, "The girl that took down the yellow-eyed demon with you boys? John told me."

Ty stepped up onto the porch then and Bobby moved past Dean to greet her. He held out his hand and Ty took it, shaking it firmly.

"Bobby Singer." Bobby introduced himself.

"Ty Falkner." Ty replied, "Sam's said a lot of good things about you."

"John's said some good things about you, too." Bobby returned, "Come on in. Looks like you three are on the tail end of a job."

"Yeah." Ty agreed, a little stunned by the fact that John had spoken well of her to another hunter. Despite Bobby's gruff exterior, he had kind eyes and Ty found herself instantly liking him, "Bitch of a job, actually."

Ty let herself be guided inside by Bobby, glancing back only momentarily at Sam and Dean. The Dean situation was still causing her thoughts and emotions to churn inside of her, but Bobby's presence was distracting and kind of calming, which she appreciated. The boys looked a little surprised at this turn of events. They'd known Bobby practically their whole lives and here they'd been left on the porch while Ty had been escorted inside.

"Figures." Dean grumbled, skulking in after them.

It was only about noon and Dean was already feeling ready for a beer. Dean moved into Bobby's kitchen and grabbed one from the fridge. He knew drinking this early might cause Sam or Bobby to comment on it, but he really didn't care. It might be best if he could pack away a few before he and Ty got into it anyway. He needed to be a little more numb for that.

He hadn't intended to do this here. He'd thought he'd be ready by the time they'd reached Bobby, but as soon as he'd pulled up, he'd realized that he wasn't near up to this confrontation. No, he'd wanted to wait until they got her home, but he could tell that she wasn't about to let him put it off. He'd seen the look on her face when she'd walked up to the porch. If it hadn't been for Bobby, they might already be knee-deep in it. As it was, he probably had about ten minutes or so, as long as it took to tell Bobby about the hunt, before she tried to corner him again. He should have known Ty wouldn't make this easy on him. That just wasn't her.

"So, last I heard you'd gotten yourself up to your elbows in hunts." Bobby was saying when Dean walked into the living room where Ty and Bobby had sat down.

Sam had just walked in, as well. The boys exchanged a look, Sam taking in the beer in Dean's hand, but they didn't say anything to each other before they had a seat themselves.

"You heard about that, too, huh?" Ty asked with a sigh.

After everything else she'd been through, she wasn't too keen on revisiting that particular topic. Bobby just nodded, waiting for her to explain.

Ty ran her hands through her hair and launched into the abbreviated version of recent events, "Yeah, so I guess these guys heard about that and came to check up on me."

Ty paused. It occurred to her that the boys didn't know exactly when her possession had taken place. She had an opportunity here. If she let them believe that her reckless hunting had been because of the demon, she could avoid dealing with at least one of her problems.

"The boys didn't know I was possessed." Ty continued, avoiding looking at anyone, "She...uh...she wanted to use me to get to Dean."

"Dean?" Bobby interrupted, looking from Ty to the boys, "Not Sam?"

"Go figure, huh?" Dean shrugged, taking a swig of his beer.

Bobby's eyes narrowed at Dean and his gaze lingered on him for a moment before he looked over at Sam.

"Ty said that she wasn't too fond of me. I guess she was the daughter of the yellow-eyed demon and that he wanted me to lead them or something, but she wasn't buying it." Sam offered.

"She was a lying bitch." Dean growled.

"She was not!" Ty snapped, causing all three men to look at her in surprise. Ty shook her head before she attempted to explain, "I'm sorry. It's just...she didn't lie. The only thing she lied about was about Alex's parents. She meant what she said."

"She was just messing with your head." Dean denied, dismissing Ty's objection.

"Dean..." Bobby tried to interject, seeing the flash of anger in Ty's eyes.

"What would you even know about it, Dean?" Ty demanded, overriding Bobby's attempt to defuse the situation, "I'm not even sure how I feel about her, so how the hell could you know? You didn't even know she was there!"

Dean found himself on his feet all of a sudden, "You're not sure how you feel about her? She's a freaking demon! Don't tell me you two were best friends."

Ty stood up, too, refusing to let Dean tower over her, "I'm not. But at least she didn't lie to me!"

"What the hell are you even talking about?" Dean snarled, shaking his head as if he couldn't even believe they were having this discussion, which only served to piss Ty off even more.

Ty was about to yell an answer back at Dean, but caught herself at the last second before the words escaped her mouth. She'd almost said too much again and, she suddenly realized, in front of Sam and Bobby. Gritting her teeth, Ty turned her back on Dean, facing Bobby instead.

"You got a punching bag or something around here, Bobby?" Ty ground out, her hands already forming tight fists at her side.

"Out back in the garage." Bobby nodded, gesturing towards the back of the house, "Ain't been used in awhile, though."

"It's fine." Ty said quickly, spinning on her heel and moving in the direction Bobby had indicated. It didn't take her too long to locate a door out into the yard, which she let slam behind her.

The living room was quiet for a long moment after Ty's exit. No one even really moved until Bobby broke the silence, "Well, you're certainly deep in it this time, boy."

If it had been anyone but Bobby, Dean might have clocked him in the chin for that comment. But, since it was Bobby, he decided to just leave before he had to hear anything else he wasn't in the mood for.

"Gonna fix the car." he grumbled, heading back out front to the car, the opposite direction from where Ty had gone.

Bobby couldn't help but laugh gruffly after Dean had left, giving Sam a smirk, "So, your brother finally fell for someone, huh?"

Sam grinned back, once again amazed at Bobby's intuition. He was also grateful to the older hunter for lightening the mood a little. Ty's words worried Sam. When Dean and Bobby had finally gotten Meg out of him, there'd been no doubt in his mind that Meg had been evil. But Ty sounded like maybe she identified with her possessor, which meant that either Demon-Ty was an extremely unusual demon or that Ty had some serious issues and, based upon her history with them, Sam was leaning towards the latter. And, he was fairly certain, that most of it had to do with Dean. Sam's grin faded as he thought about it. If only his brother would be open and honest with Ty, he was sure they could fix things, but knowing Dean, a snowball had a better chance in hell.

"Well," Bobby said, clapping his hands against his thighs as he stood up, "probably better just leave those two alone. You hungry, Sam?"

Sam nodded thankfully and followed Bobby to the kitchen.

For about the next hour, Dean examined his car, carefully inspecting every inch of the dented hood and the scratched paint, trying to figure out a way to fix it without going into Bobby's garage. Since that was where Bobby kept all his tools and Dean was basically working with just the power of his mind, it was kind of hopeless, but Dean was reluctant to go anywhere near Ty. He thought about going back inside and pressing Sam to go get the tools he needed for him, but knowing his brother, he'd probably be a bitch about it and try to talk him into going himself.

"Great." Dean grumbled to himself, "Now's she getting between me and my car."

Dean ran his hand gently over the damaged hood one more time before he made his decision. Ty wanted a confrontation, fine. He'd give it to her. It was probably the least he could do. He would just have to be extra careful that he didn't let her get to him again or he might end up saying something that would ruin everything.

Dean slowly moved around the house. He could hear Ty before he saw her, heard her grumbling indistinctly under her breath in between the thud of impact with the punching bag. Dean paused before moving within sight of her. He really did wish there was some other way. He wished that he could give Ty what she wanted, what she deserved. He really hadn't known her all that long, but it was obvious that he cared for her more than he'd ever intended. Something about her had gotten to him. Maybe it was that she understood him. Maybe it was that he'd never really had to lie to her about who he was or what he did, that she'd actually been drawn to him because of those very things. Maybe he was just getting soft. Whatever it was, he regretted all the pain he'd caused her and was about to cause her. In particular, he was sorry that he seemed to be playing into whatever the demon had done to screw with her head. He didn't want her to think that what that demon bitch had said was true. It wasn't. He hadn't just used her and Ty should know that there was nothing about her that wasn't good enough for him. If anything, it was the other way around.

"Too bad you're not man enough to tell her." Dean muttered to himself.

Dean sighed and his shoulders hunched slightly as he continued on towards Ty. She stopped attacking Bobby's old punching bag as soon as she saw him, turning to face him, feet about shoulder-width apart and hands still balled into fists. Dean almost smirked at the contrast in their postures: she was all about picking a fight right now and he was a picture of resignation.

"Hey," Dean ventured when it became clear that she wasn't going to break the ice, "you see a sledgehammer over there somewhere?"

"I don't think you want me handling a sledgehammer right now." Ty replied without any emotion, fixing him with a level stare. She was trying very hard not to let herself drown in her own feelings. She'd spent the past hour trying to channel the maelstrom into her blows against the punching bag, trying to dispel the pain from her body for just a moment, but it hadn't worked. Besides, the sight of Dean was making this internal battle damn near impossible, making her emotional wounds feel as fresh as ever.

"You know, if you've got a problem, you should just come out and say it already." Dean snapped, making sure to add just the right amount of frustration to his voice. It wasn't terribly difficult considering he was pretty frustrated about the way things had turned out anyway.

Ty's eyes narrowed into a glare before she responded, "A problem? Do I have a problem? No, Dean. I'm freaking overjoyed that you were too busy screwing my body to notice that there was a damn demon inside it!"

It was a cheap shot, but he had to take it. He had to push her or else this could go on forever, "How was I supposed to know? It's not like you've been Miss Proper since the day I met you."

Ty's jaw dropped. Thinking that Dean didn't care enough about her to notice her possession was one thing. Hell, even thinking that Dean had enjoyed her possessed behavior wasn't quite as bad as having him insinuate that the reason he couldn't tell that she'd been possessed was because she'd always been easy.

"For your information, Winchester, you are the only man I've ever left a bar with." Ty growled, taking a step forward and poking him in the chest.

Dean just shrugged as if to say, how was he supposed to know? Rage boiled up inside of Ty, momentarily numbing the piercing pain she'd felt in her heart since the exorcism. For just a second, she forgot the demon's words, forgot about her own shortcomings that had led to this inevitable conclusion, and instead found herself consumed with how this was all Dean's fault.

"You know, I always knew you were a heartbreaker." Ty continued, the words pouring out of her mouth as she shook with the force of the emotions inside of her, "I just figured you'd have the decency to be straight about it. I never thought that you would be the type of gutless bastard to let me fall in love with you first."

Dean faltered for a moment at those words as if she'd hit him, before he recovered. He felt sick over what he was about to do, but he forced himself to do it anyway.

"You knew this was never some fairytale romance, sweetheart. Don't blame me if you let yourself get all sentimental."

"I hate you." Ty bit out, smarting almost as much over her own slip in admitting her feelings out loud as at Dean's response.

Dean forced a smirk onto his face, "Great. Wanna have angry sex?"

Dean was expecting to get smacked for that one. He wasn't expecting to get sucker punched in the jaw. Knowing Ty, though, he probably should have been.

"Damn it!" Dean grumbled, feeling his jaw gingerly to make sure it was still in the right place.

Dean turned his eyes back to Ty just in time to catch her lunging forward again, her fist flying out and catching him in the stomach. Dean grunted as the air rushed out of his lungs. Ty wasn't sure what had driven her to physically assault Dean. Maybe it was just an instinctive reaction to the verbal and emotional assault he'd already begun upon her. Maybe it was just some sort of basic need to make him feel even a fraction of the pain that she was experiencing. Whatever had caused her to start punching, it felt good. About a million times more satisfying than hitting a punching bag.

"What the hell?" Dean coughed, glaring up at Ty.

"I was right." Ty mused, trying to seem as oblivious to Dean's pain as he had been to hers, "I should've gone with Sam."

Ty punctuated her statement by kicking Dean hard in the stomach just as he was straightening. She then whipped around and swept her leg out low, catching Dean's legs and pulling them out from under him.

Dean's glare darkened as he looked up at Ty. He'd been expecting a fight when he walked over here, but not like this. He'd expected yelling, screaming, crying. He'd expected to break her heart and his own while he was at it. Then, she'd started swinging. Hell, he'd even planned on accepting that first punch, figured he probably deserved it. But now she was just being a bitch.

"The demon was right about me. I know that. But she was right about you, too, wasn't she? You don't even know how to love someone, do you?"

"I'm done with this." Dean declared, getting to his feet. He was well aware of how emotionally screwed up he was. In fact, he knew that the demon had been right about that. He was the real reason why they could never work. But he also knew Ty. She didn't mean it. She would never really accept that. She was just using those words to try and hurt him. Besides, he hadn't missed her declaration about the demon being right about her, too. Discussing this any further wasn't going to get them anywhere. Actually, he'd had just about all he could take of this.

"Like hell." Ty said, leg snapping out, foot catching him in the shoulder and knocking him off balance before he could regain his feet.

Dean's frustration was growing by leaps and bounds. Why couldn't she just let this go? Why did she have to get under his skin? This was hard enough, damn it! God, she was just so infuriating sometimes!

Ty smirked down at Dean defiantly, enjoying the anger that she could clearly see on his face, "You want to take a swing, Dean? Go ahead! I dare you!"

Dean hadn't been thinking clearly. That was his story anyway and he was sticking to it. Because the next thing he knew, he was landing painfully on his back with Ty on top of him. And it wasn't anything like the way Demon-Ty had pushed him back onto a bed and fallen gracefully on top of him in a really hot sort of way. No, this was more of an awkward and painful sort of way that hurt like a bitch. Dean backtracked in his mind to try and figure out how this had happened.

He'd sprung back to his feet and taken a swing at her. That was how badly she'd gotten to him. Unfortunately, due to the previously stated 'not thinking clearly' thing, he hadn't anticipated her ducking his punch, hooking her foot around his legs _again_ and pulling them out from under him while she barreled into him with her whole body weight. Which led to where he was now, sprawled on Bobby's garage floor for a second time.

Ty recovered quickly, sitting up on Dean's chest and snagging both his wrists in her hands, holding them down against the ground near his sides. Looking down at him, she found her anger dissipating. She didn't want to fight anymore. Not really. She'd said that she hated him, but it wasn't true. She loved him. As painful as it was, she'd probably always love him. And, unfortunately, being an ass was just how Dean was.

"You give love a bad name, Winchester." Ty snapped at him.

It was a peace offering. Ty had read a book once about how the Apache people could say a lot of things just be saying place-names. Strangely enough, she and Dean did a similar thing with song lyrics. That line from a Bon Jovi song meant 'you really hurt me, but I can't help but still love you. Please give me something, some reason for it.' It was so much easier for them to speak around their feelings like that, with someone else's words.

She needed him to talk to her. Even if it meant that he was ending it, she needed him to explain why. She deserved as much, damn it. She might not deserve him, but she did deserve to hear a reason why.

"Bon Jovi? Really?" Dean questioned, his eyebrows raised skeptically.

Ty scowled at Dean, "You're an ass, Dean. That's not a song lyric, but it's still true."

Dean couldn't help it. Her words, coupled with the indignant look on her face, was just too much. It started as a chuckle and escalated quickly into an all-out laugh. And strangely enough, Dean laughing at her didn't aggravate Ty. Instead of anger marring her features, she just looked confused. Dean took a deep breath in order to get a hold of himself. Rather than try to explain himself, Dean just offered her a smile. It was the first genuine expression, besides anger, that had crossed his features in their entire encounter. The smile contained an undo amount of sadness, awkwardly balanced with affection. Ty was surprised by the honesty of his look as much as by the emotions it expressed. She realized in a flash what he was doing. He was doing this on purpose, driving her away. But she still didn't know why. It was incredibly frustrating knowing in that instant that if either of them could be completely open and honest with each other that maybe everything could be resolved, but knowing as well that she might as well wish for a ride home on a unicorn. Still, how much worse could things be…?

"Dean?"

"Yeah?"

"What's wrong?"

The question was terribly simple and impossibly complicated at the same time. It wasn't spoken, as most of Ty's questions had been recently, in a demanding tone, but rather with sincere concern. Dean's first instinct was to avoid answering her. His second was to lie and say 'nothing.' But the look in her eyes stopped him from doing either. He couldn't do this to her. Not anymore. Sam was right, he was hurting her this way and even if he did believe that, in the end, this was in her best interest, it wasn't fair that he should cause her any more pain. No matter how vulnerable that left him.

"I'm sorry." were the first words he managed to say. He couldn't say exactly what he was sorry for. There were too many things he regretted to pick just one, "I…uh…I don't do this. I don't get attached. You're right. I should have stopped this before… but I didn't and you keep getting hurt... It's my fault. It's safer…you're better off without me."

It took Ty a minute to unravel Dean's short, choppy sentences. Dean didn't do heart-to-hearts. You had to read between the lines, add in the meaning behind what his eyes expressed, but that he couldn't say. Then the pieces of the puzzle would start to fit together and things would start to make sense.

Dean blamed himself for everything that had happened to her since she'd met him: her death, her possessions, her heartbreak. He thought it was selfish for him to maintain anything between them because he was a danger to her. Moreover, since these same thoughts were what the demon had accused Dean of, it was important for him to deny that she'd told the truth. And perhaps most ironic of all, while Ty had been sure that she wasn't good enough for Dean, he'd been certain that he wasn't good enough for her. Ty almost laughed. What a pathetic pair they made.

Actually… Ty's eyes narrowed as she thought about it. She and Dean had more in common than she'd first realized. As insecure as she felt about herself on terms of a romantic relationship, it was becoming increasing clear that Dean had some serious issues, too. In fact, it seemed like Dean was pretty much convinced that he didn't deserve to be loved. Ogled and used, certainly; Dean was nothing if not confident in his sex appeal, but when it came to something more than that…

Turning to Dean, she grinned, "What can I say? You kick-start my heart, baby."

Dean stared at her in confusion, so she shrugged, "What? It's my favorite Crew song."

With that, Ty pushed herself off of Dean and got back to her feet. She didn't have the perfect words for this kind of situation, so Motley Crew would just have to do. She hoped that Dean would get her meaning: that she understood where he was coming from and that she was proving him wrong at this very moment by continuing to care for him. Now all she had to do was hope that he returned the feeling.

Dean got back to his feet, pondering Ty's words. Finally recovering, Dean offered her a cheeky grin of his own, "Really? Mine's 'Girls, girls, girls.'"

Ty punched him in the shoulder before turning away to hide her smile, "That figures."

Ty headed back towards the house, feeling lighter than she had in a long time. She paused after a few steps and glanced back at Dean, "Coming?"

Dean hesitated before he answered her. The look on her face, the sentiment shining in her eyes, made him smile and wonder at the same time how he could possibly be responsible for such feeling in someone else. Maybe he shouldn't write this off so soon. Maybe, since Sam seemed to have been right so far, he should try to really talk to her. Still, first thing's first.

"In a minute. Still gotta fix my car."


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter Thirteen:

A/N: One more chapter, I think. Song is "All Right Now" by Free.

Chapter Thirteen: All Right Now

_There she stood in the street  
Smiling from her head to her feet  
I said "Hey, what is this"  
Now baby, maybe she's in need of a kiss  
I said " Hey, what's your name baby"  
maybe we can see things the same  
Now don't you wait or hesitate  
Let's move before they raise the parking rate_

All right now baby, it's all right now  
All right now baby, it's all right now

Ty reentered Bobby's house, a hint of a smile softening her features. Her relationship with Dean was in no way fixed, but at least now she had a better idea of how he really felt. And now that she knew that, it was obvious to her that he hadn't really meant a lot of the things he'd said to her and that he actually did care about her. For the moment, that was more than enough.

As Ty walked back into the house, her ears almost instantly picked up on the sound of male voices. Seeking Sam and Bobby, she followed them, but before she'd gone far, she heard a third voice. Stunned, Ty hesitated a moment before racing around the corner and into the living room.

"Alex?" she asked in surprise, nearly skidding to a stop in the entryway.

The young hunter looked over at her, meeting her gaze. He smiled almost shyly at her and Ty almost blushed in response, thinking about the impression that she must have made on him while she was possessed.

"When did you get here?" Ty asked, looking away for a moment to hide her embarrassment. She hadn't gotten to know Alex too well, only what she'd gleaned when the demon hadn't kept her in the dark, but she liked him and she felt strangely connected to him by their shared link to the demon.

"Just now. I figured you guys might be here."

"I didn't know you knew Bobby." Sam said, not hiding his surprise at seeing the younger hunter either.

Alex rolled his eyes, "Everyone knows Bobby."

"I knew Alex's parents." Bobby explained, "Haven't seen you in a long time, though, son. How are you?"

"I'm…okay." Alex answered slowly, obviously considering his reply.

"What can I do for you?" Bobby continued.

"Actually, I came to talk to Ty."

Ty's eyes widened in surprise and her mind raced with the things that Alex might want to say to her as three sets of eyes turned towards her.

"Me?" she asked, hoping that maybe she'd heard wrong.

"Yeah." Alex confirmed, rising from his seat. He didn't move towards her, reading the hesitancy in her eyes, but instead added, "Please?"

Ty took a moment to answer. She could only imagine how much Alex must resent her and that was assuming that he didn't outright hate her. Even though someone else had been manning the controls, for all intents and purposes, she'd tortured him recently. And it was because of her that Alex would continue to be tormented by the unavenged shades of his parents that certainly must haunt his thoughts. Ty would like to shrug off the guilt that she felt, blame the demon and move on, but she couldn't. The vague memories she'd gleaned of his parents forced her to feel empathetic towards him, made her want to take whatever Alex threw at her if only it might bring him some comfort. She felt like she owed him that much.

"Yeah, sure." she finally replied, gesturing back the way she'd come in, assuming that Alex would prefer to step outside and have a private conversation.

Alex nodded and moved past her. Sam caught Ty's eye before she turned to follow. His eyes questioned her, asking if she was okay, if she needed him. Ty smiled her gratitude at Sam for the offer, but shook her head. This was something she had to do herself.

When Ty exited the back door for the second time, she was met by Alex's dark gaze. His expression seemed unguarded to her, but his eyes were sorrowful and not angry like she'd expected.

"This is…uh…kind of…" Alex began, shifting uncomfortably and transferring his gaze to his shoes, "I wanted to thank you."

Ty almost stumbled backwards. Her shock at that statement almost overwhelmed her sense of balance. As it was, she had to blink and shake herself out of her stupor to reply and that was only after some moments of silence had passed.

"What?" she coughed out, "Thank me?"

"Yeah." Alex nodded, continuing to avoid her gaze, "For telling me. About my parents."

"Alex, I…" Ty began quickly, reaching out almost instinctively. She caught herself and took a moment to really consider her words, "You don't owe me anything. I should be thanking you. I know what it cost you and you had no reason to stick your neck out for me. I mean, you don't even really know me."

Alex finally looked up. Ty briefly caught some turmoil in his expression before he repressed it. Instead, he offered her a hopeful smile and held out his hand.

"You're right. We haven't really met. I'm Alex."

Ty took his hand and shook it. This wasn't over for Alex, she knew. Whatever the demon was talking about when she'd said that Alex was disobeying his parents' wishes by hunting, she could tell that he wasn't about to stop. Not until he tracked that demon down again and ended it. Ty made a silent vow to help him do it.

"I'm Ty." she replied, "Nice to meet you, Alex."

"You too, Ty." Alex echoed. His eyes picked up a bit of a mischievous glint, "Hey, did you really hunt a chupacabra with a bow and arrow like they say?"

Ty sighed and cast her gaze heavenward. Would she never live those months of foolhardy hunting down? She turned to head back inside without replying. Alex followed at her heels.

"What about the zombies? That true?"

"Drop it, Alex." Ty muttered, but without any real anger behind her words.

Alex just grinned wider, sliding past her to walk backwards before her back to the living room, "Have you ever fired two guns whilst jumping through the air?"

"Alex!" Ty protested, but smiled despite herself at the reference to Hot Fuzz and at this picture of Alex as he probably was when a demon wasn't tormenting him with the memory of his murdered parents.

"How about one gun?" Alex persisted, undaunted.

"Well, look what the cat dragged in."

Alex turned to find that Dean had joined Sam and Bobby. He paused, meeting Dean's gaze as the two men sized each other up.

"I hope I'm the cat in this scenario." Ty commented, moving past Alex. Dean opened his mouth to answer, but Ty quickly cut him off, "No, don't say whatever you're about to say."

Dean raised an eyebrow at that, then shrugged, silently admitting that she'd read him correctly. He then turned and grabbed a bag that he tossed to Alex.

"You left some stuff at the hotel."

Alex looked at the bag in his hands, eyebrows raised, "Thanks."

Dean brushed the comment off, "Eh, figured we'd run into you again sooner or later. Saw your truck out front…" Dean trailed off for a moment before he cleared his throat and started again, "Look, sorry about before. I…uh…"

"It's cool." Alex interrupted him mercifully. He smiled, "You Winchesters are alright. I mean, you've got some of the worst luck on the planet and you can be kind of a dick, Dean, but you're alright."

Dean considered that, then nodded in agreement, tacking on a grin that seemed to say that you had to love him anyways. Ty rolled her eyes.

"Hate to break up this male bonding, but…" she moved forward and grabbed Dean by the shirt, pulling him after her towards the front door.

Dean smirked at Sam, Alex and Bobby as he followed. Alex shook his head as the door closed after them.

"What does a girl like that see in him?" he mused.

"What do any of 'em see in guys like us?" Bobby shrugged, "Just hope that stubborn idiot doesn't screw it up."

Sam nodded in agreement before steering the conversation back to what he'd been asking Bobby before Alex arrived.

Ty released her hold on Dean's shirt as they exited the house. Without a glance behind her, she stepped down off the porch and over to the Impala. She hadn't really noticed the damage to the hood before. She had no memory of how it had happened; the demon hadn't allowed her to see much of that last hour. And afterwards, well, she'd been a little preoccupied by her own problems. Now, Ty took the time to absorb the wounds Dean's precious car had sustained. Much like Dean had before, she ran her hand gently over the dented metal and scratched paint, wincing sympathetically as she did so. Dean watched her with his car, his baby, and felt like he couldn't breathe properly. This was his girl. It was obvious to him now. Dean swore under his breath. What the hell was he supposed to do now?

"You can fix her?" Ty asked, oblivious to Dean's personal revelation.

"She's made it through worse." Dean nodded, meeting her hopeful gaze and moving to join her by the car, "I just gotta pound out the dent and fix the paint. She'll be good as new."

"Can I help?"

"Sure." Dean said, pleasantly surprised by her offer, "Hop in. We'll move her around back."

Ty quickly moved to the passenger side and climbed in.

"So, I guess we still need to try and have that talk." Dean ventured hesitantly as he maneuvered the car around the house.

"You mean without lying and fighting this time?" Ty asked, only partially joking.

"Yeah, without that." Dean agreed, a sinking feeling coming over him at that very prospect. How to have an open discussion about feelings was definitely not one of the skills he'd picked up over the years. And yet he had to try because it was Ty. Besides, she knew him well enough to know he wasn't any good at this and hopefully she would be able to understand whatever he couldn't say.

Dean pulled the car up to Bobby's garage and parked it. He glanced at Ty before he got out so that she'd know he wasn't avoiding her. It was just easier for him to distract himself with working on the car. Ty didn't seem to mind at all. In fact, she almost seemed relieved for something to do, as well. They were silent for a few moments as Dean gently lifted the Impala's hood and began unscrewing the bolts securing it to the rest of the frame. Ty distracted herself by locating the sledgehammer Dean had asked for earlier, leaning against it slightly while she waited for Dean to remove the hood.

"So…uh…" Dean muttered without looking at her.

"Can I ask you something?" Ty asked suddenly, ignoring Dean's floundering attempt at a conversation.

"Shoot." Dean nodded, relieved that she'd taken the lead on this talking thing.

"Forget all the crap that the demon said about both of us, all the doubts I know we both have about ourselves. Forget all the reasons why it's not a good idea or whatever. Simple yes or no: whatever happens in the future, do you want me around? Just tell me the truth. When you think about tomorrow, am I a part of it?" Ty asked, staring down at the sledgehammer as she spun it against the ground, too embarrassed to look at Dean.

Dean glanced back at her and was startled to find that answering her question was easy. If he took all the things he was worrying about out of the equation, if it was just a question of what he wanted, he knew the answer. But what he wanted for himself hardly mattered. They didn't live in a perfect world. Dean had known that ever since he was four years old and his mother had been murdered over his baby brother's crib. Besides, how could Dean even think about his own desires when he knew that keeping Ty with him endangered her?

"Stop it." Ty commanded, looking up and deducing from the look on Dean's face what he was thinking, "Just yes or no. I know the rest. I just…I need to know this."

"What difference does….?" Dean began, bitterness creeping into his tone.

"Winchester, I'll beat it out of you if I have to, now answer the question!" Ty threatened.

A fleeting smile crossed Dean's face at Ty's threat and he looked back down at his car to hide his reaction from her.

"Yeah, maybe." Dean mumbled, pretending to inspect the engine, "It's either you or Sammy yelling at me with his girlie bitch voice telling me I'm an idiot. Guess I'd rather it be you."

"You _are_ an idiot." Ty affirmed, but she couldn't suppress the grin on her face.

Even though there were still a million things standing in the way of any variation on happily ever after for her and Dean, the number one problem being that they were both emotionally retarded, it was at least possible now that she knew that he cared about her and he wanted her to be a part of his life, his future. They could work on everything else in time. Someday, maybe she could prove to Dean that he wasn't a danger to her and convince herself that she wasn't a danger to him, either. Maybe they could both learn to believe that like Dean and his family, they're stronger together.

Ty leaned the handle of the sledgehammer against the Impala's bumper and moved to stand next to Dean. She pulled on his jacket, turning him to face her, smiling up at him with what she hoped was the most open expression she'd ever worn.

"But…I love you." she said, leaning into him and kissing him.

Dean tensed at her words, but at the same time it felt like there was an electrical current passing between them because that was the first time she'd admitted that to him while not possessed or in the heat of an argument. Maybe it was for that reason that this kiss felt unlike any other Dean could recall. And yet, he wasn't sure he could answer her back with those same words. He wasn't ready. He worried for a second about how Ty might react at his inability to reciprocate, but something in her kiss convinced him that he didn't need to be concerned about that. She wasn't expecting anything from him. She knew him and she wasn't going to push him. Damn, and to think that he hadn't wanted her tagging along back when he first met her!

There was one thing that he could tell her, though, something he should have told her before rather than trying stupidly to push her away. Dean pulled away just a little to seek Ty's eyes, knowing he had to look her straight in the eye when he said this or she would never take it to heart, "The demon was wrong. Whatever she said to you about you not being good enough is bullshit. You are seriously one of the best people I know and I'm amazed you even want to be around me."

Ty had to blink back some moisture threatening to become tears in her eyes. She'd never expected Dean to be so giving, never thought that he would be able to say what she so needed to hear. She was struck once again by a certainty that she didn't deserve this man, but she pushed it aside.

"Diddo." she shot back at him, her eyes daring him to challenge her.

Dean forced an embarrassed smile, "So, talk over?"

Ty nodded quickly, "Talk over. Let's get this beauty of a car fixed up, huh?"

Dean flashed Ty a grin, relief shining through his eyes as he moved to comply. Ty helped as he carefully lifted the hood away from the frame and moved it onto a nearby work table. She then spent most of her time trying to stay out of the way as she watched Dean hammer out the dents. Ty's thoughts wandered as she gazed idly at Dean. A lot had happened in her life recently and although she'd managed to work some things out okay, there were still other things left unresolved. As she thought about it, Ty realized that there was really only one way to approach her remaining major issues. Dean wouldn't like it, but it was necessary. She had to go home.


	14. Chapter 14

A/N: Final chapter everybody. Sorry for the delay. I hope you all enjoyed this. This song is Metallica's "Carpe Diem, Baby."

Chapter Fourteen: Carpe Diem, Baby

_Hit dirt, shake tree  
Split sky, part sea  
Strip smile, lose cool  
Bleed the day and break the rule  
Live to win, dare to fail  
Eat the dirt and bite the nail  
Then make me miss you  
Then make me miss you  
So wash your vice away with dirt  
It don't feel good until it hurts  
So take this world and shake it  
Come squeeze and suck the day  
Come carpe diem baby  
Draw lead, piss wine  
Sink teeth, all mine  
Stoke fire, break neck  
Suffer through this, cheat on death  
Hug the curve, lose the time  
Tear the map and shoot the sign  
Then make me miss you  
Then make me miss you  
So wash your vice away with dirt  
It don't feel good until it hurts  
So take this world and shake it  
Come squeeze and suck the day  
Come carpe diem baby_

Dean did not understand. For once in the history of their relationship, not to mention his life in general, things seemed to be working out. Now she wanted to leave him.

"So…run that all by me again." he said, shaking his head in confusion.

Ty sighed. It wasn't his fault that he didn't get it. She really didn't know herself why this was so important. Not well enough to be able to communicate it to Dean, anyway.

"This is just something I've got to do." she told him, her eyes begging him to at least humor her if he couldn't understand.

Ty rubbed her arms, feeling extremely awkward. She suddenly wished that she hadn't chosen to have this conversation in private. She had a feeling that Sam might be the perfect interpreter between her and Dean at the moment. But it felt selfish to drag Sam into this when it was her problem, her issues.

"But why can't I come, again?" Dean persisted.

Ty forced herself to look at Dean instead of at a conveniently placed patch of grass on the ground between them. Her eyes took the scenic route to his face. It gave her time to collect her thoughts and it wasn't like Dean was especially difficult to look at. He was dressed much the same as he always was: faded jeans, T-shirt, leather jacket. It was just that he was so comfortable in them and they suited him. Plus, Ty suspected you could dress Dean up in a burlap sack and he'd still look drop-dead gorgeous.

She was letting herself get distracted. Ty pushed all thoughts of Dean's abs, chest and biceps out of her head and made the visual leap up to his uncertain hazel eyes. Part of her wanted to move closer to him, to try and comfort him so that he would know that her pushing him away this time was in no way a rejection. But another part of her wanted to move even further away from him, away from the temptation of being in his arms because she knew how much harder it would be to leave him if they were actually touching. The end result of these conflicting desires was that she remained exactly where she was, but as tense as a taut guitar string, humming with anxiety.

"It's not that I don't want you to," Ty admitted, "it's just that…look, Dean, this all started because of how screwed up I am. I've got to work that out for myself, by myself."

Dean frowned, "The way I remember it, you not wanting to ask for help caused some problems, too."

"This isn't like that." Ty corrected him gently, "I'm not afraid to ask for your help. I'm afraid that if I do, I won't be who I want to be."

"What?" Dean asked, as if she'd just switched from English to Swahili.

"I know you don't like it." Ty continued, "But I really, really need you to let me do this."

Dean shifted uncomfortably. She was giving him that look he hated, that look that she and Sam used like a secret weapon to get what they wanted. Why the hell couldn't he say no to that look?

"How long?" he finally grumbled unhappily.

He expected Ty to flash him a wide smile, but her expression was decidedly muted. She did smile, but it was small and her eyes still held that mild apology she'd been sending him since they started this conversation. This was serious and that made Dean even less thrilled about the whole thing.

"I'm not sure. Give me a week and we'll see?" Ty proposed.

Dean barely nodded once before he became more interested in kicking the toe of his shoe into the dirt. He didn't look up until he felt Ty moving away.

"Thank you." she said softly, catching his gaze one more time before she disappeared back into Bobby's house.

It seemed like Dean blinked and he was standing on Bobby's front porch instead of in his backyard, watching as Ty threw her gear in the back of Alex's pickup truck. Dean didn't really have a problem with the guy anymore, but it still irked him to see Ty leaving with him. It was like rubbing salt in the wound of her leaving. Dean gritted his teeth and tried to convince himself that he didn't care. Unfortunately, he wasn't buying it.

"Bye, guys!" Ty called as she moved to stand next to the open passenger door.

"You take care." Bobby replied.

"See you soon." Sam echoed him, waving.

It bothered Dean even more that Sam wasn't bothered by this. His brother seemed completely unconcerned. The fact that Sam was actually completely certain that they would be seeing Ty again because his brother was hopelessly head over heels didn't even register as a possibility.

Ty got in the truck and pulled the door closed after her. Alex was already waiting in the driver's seat. He turned the key in the ignition, bringing the engine to life, but hesitated before pulling the truck out of the drive. She hadn't actually said bye to Dean yet and he knew that had to be coming.

True enough, Ty leaned out the open window.

"Bye, Dean." she said, almost too quietly for him to hear her over the truck's engine.

Dean fought hard to resist the urge to stomp over there, rip the door open, haul her out of the cab and kiss her until she forgot this stupid idea about going off on her own to find herself or whatever. It was hard to restrain himself. She didn't even look right in that truck, he decided. She looked out of place. Like maybe she really belonged on the bench seat of a black, classic Chevy. Dean shifted his weight and tried to find the will to get the word 'bye' past his clenched teeth, but he couldn't do it. He could tell that if he opened his mouth right now, he'd regret it. So, instead, he turned around and went back inside, refusing to watch her drive away.

Ty felt sick to her stomach watching Dean walk away without saying a word, but she couldn't blame him. She wasn't particularly enjoying this either and it was her idea.

This had all started because of her insecurities. She'd worked through some of that with Dean, but in order to really be okay with herself, she needed to figure out exactly who she was on her own. If Dean were involved, she'd always feel dependent and that's not what she wanted. She wanted to want Dean, not need him. Besides, she was a big girl. She could stand on her own two feet and face her fears even if in this case it meant facing herself, something she'd spent most of her life avoiding. Ty nodded resolutely to herself. If she wanted to spend the rest of her life battling demons, she might as well start with her own.

"I really appreciate the ride, Alex." Ty said out loud, partly to distract herself and partly because she knew her silence was making Alex uncomfortable. It was a long enough drive without an awkward silence hanging between them.

Alex shrugged, "No problem. Always wanted to see the Grand Canyon."

"That's kind of on the way." Ty nodded, sending him a smile, "And, you know, I've never actually seen it either."

"Really?" Alex asked genuinely surprised. He grinned back at her, "Sweet, road trip."

Ty almost snorted to herself at the thought, but as she mulled it over, it seemed more and more appealing. She relaxed, allowing herself to let go of some of the tension that had tagged along for the ride since she left Bobby's. She was doing the right thing. She was sure of it.

It took a couple of days before Alex and Ty rolled back into Phoenix. They could have made the drive quicker, but neither of them had really seen any reason to hurry. Ty felt a twinge of guilt over spending this time with Alex rather than with Dean, but she chocked that up to simply missing him. It wasn't like there was anything between her and Alex beside friendship.

When they reached Phoenix, she decided to cut Alex loose, anyway. She'd left Bobby's to spend some time on her own and even though Alex was a great guy and fun to spend time with, he was too closely tied up in the world of hunting which, for Ty, was inextricably tied up with Dean.

"It's nothing against you, Alex. Our road trip was awesome." she said to reassure him that it wasn't because she was tired of him or anything.

Alex nodded and Ty was relieved to see that he didn't seem offended or anything.

"I'll see you around, Ty." Alex said, extending his hand to shake hers, "Call me if you ever need anything."

Ty smiled at him and enfolded him in a hug. Normally Ty wasn't much of a hug type of person, but a couple of life-and-death situations can change how you interact with some people. Alex seemed pleasantly surprised by the gesture, taking a moment to respond, but then squeezing her tightly in return.

"See you around." Ty echoed him as she pulled away.

Alex nodded and slowly backed away, got in his pickup and drove off, leaving her standing outside her apartment complex. Ty sighed, shouldering her bags and heading in. She had a lot of work to do and she wasn't even sure how to begin.

Over the next few days, Ty didn't do anything particularly unusual. Dean knew this because he'd trailed her, watching her the entire time from a safe distance away so that she wouldn't know that he'd completely ignored her request to be without him. Well, not completely. They weren't actually interacting with each other. He was just making sure she was okay. Yeah, that sounded okay when he repeated it to himself.

"Dude, you are so totally lame." Sam complained for about the millionth time on day six while they sat across the street from Ty's apartment complex in the Impala, waiting to see if she'd go anywhere.

"You didn't have to come with." Dean grumbled, debating with himself whether turning up the music would discourage Sam from bothering him. Previous experience had him thinking that it probably wouldn't make a difference.

"And miss you stalking your girlfriend like an emo 16-year-old?" Sam persisted, grinning like any younger brother would when the tables have finally turned.

"I hate you." Dean glared.

Sam just continued grinning and Dean continued sulking as he sat hunched over the steering wheel, gazing across the street for any sign of Ty.

When Dean's phone finally rang on the seventh day, he jumped before answering it. The day had dawned a gloomy, overcast day that had progressed into a persistently rainy afternoon. Sam had convinced Dean to return to their motel room for awhile to see if the rain would let up. Dean had been half-dozing while watching the TV, lulled by the background noise of crappy sitcoms and Sam's steady typing away on his computer. By the time Ty called, the rain was still coming down, although not very hard and the sun was fading behind the clouds in the distance. Dean didn't care. There could be a blizzard raging outside, he was going over to that apartment complex. Although first, he had to make it through this phone call where she could say anything and, knowing Ty, probably would.

With all this racing through his mind, Dean answered his ringing phone with a, "Hey."

"Hey," Ty replied, feeling equally nervous on her end for much the same reasons, "How are you?"

Dean shrugged even though she couldn't see it, "I'm okay, I guess. You?"

"Good." Ty said, fidgeting on her end. Sitting down proved to be too difficult, so she stood up and began pacing around her apartment. She debated making more small talk, but decided it was pointless, "Are you…uh…nearby?"

Dean frowned a little, wondering for a second if she'd seen him shadowing her, but telling himself that she couldn't have, "Yeah, I'm close."

"Good. That's good." Ty nodded, mentally swearing at herself for babbling. It wasn't like she was asking him out or anything, for Christ's sake, "If you could…come by, I…uh…well, I want to see you."

"Yeah, sure." Dean agreed, keeping his voice cool while inwardly he was yelling, 'Finally!'

"How long, you think?" Ty asked.

Dean debated for a second about how long to tell her. He should probably say a couple hours so she wouldn't know that he was in town, but the thought of sitting around doing nothing for another couple hours was pretty hard to swallow. Dean decided he'd rather take whatever hell Ty might give him, "Twenty minutes."

Ty blinked in surprise for a moment at that time frame. Dean was definitely not still at Bobby's. He had to be in town. Ty took a moment to ponder how she felt about that, but shrugged it off. It really wasn't that important at this point.

"Okay. See you." she finally replied and hung up without waiting for Dean to reply.

Ty dropped her phone onto the couch with a relieved sigh at having gotten through that conversation, then promptly followed the phone down onto the cushion. She was fairly certain she was ready to face Dean, that she was ready to dive back into this crazy world that she had chosen to be a part of, but the only way to know for sure was to do it.

Ty's apartment was quiet. The TV was off, there was no music playing. The only sound penetrating the quiet sanctuary was the sound of the rain coming in through her partially opened windows. The sound drew Ty back up from the couch and over to the dripping window pane. Ty pushed the curtains aside, resting a hand against the cool glass. She had never been particularly fond of her desert home, but she loved the cool desert rains. There was something about the way the skies opened up and just released fat raindrops, the way the desert smelled when it was rainy, the way the lightening scorched the skies. It relaxed her, made her feel more connected to nature, to everything.

Ty had imagined a few scenarios for her reunion with Dean. As well as she knew him, she still wasn't totally sure how this would play out. Would he still be pissed? What would he say? Maybe he'd have decided to just accept what she'd done and apologize for his attitude earlier by buying her flowers. Ty laughed to herself at that thought.

Familiar music penetrated the sound of the rain, drawing Ty's attention. She frowned for a second as she concentrated on the sound, trying to figure out what it was. It grew louder quickly and Ty soon realized it was Bad Company's Bad Company. She smiled to herself. That had to be Dean.

Ty immediately turned and strode swiftly for the door. She didn't even think about grabbing a jacket, didn't pause to rethink about what she would say or do. She just moved. Soon enough she was down the stairs and in the parking lot. She saw the familiar headlights on the other end of the lot. It would have been dark if not for all the apartment lighting. As it was, she could make out the shadowy outline of two forms in the vehicle, the driver clearly Dean just as the passenger was obviously Sam. Ty felt a wave of relief at seeing them again and a twinge of nervousness right in her gut at the same time. She ignored both feelings and started towards them.

Dean got out of the Impala when he saw Ty appear at the bottom of the stairs. As he watched Ty walking towards him through the rain, he felt his breath catch in his throat. The rain was flattening her bangs against her forehead, turning her blonde hair brown, but she didn't seem to care. He mentally went through numerous songs that could have been playing at that moment, as if this was a poignant scene in a movie. He finally settled on "Rock You Like a Hurricane" by the Scorpions.

Dean didn't know it, but Ty's thoughts were in a similar vein, distracting her from the potential levity of the moment. However, in her head the background music for this moment was Metallica, "Carpe Diem, Baby."

Ty paused just a few steps from Dean, silently waiting for him to make the first move, to give her some indication of how this encounter was going to progress. Dean saw that she was putting the ball in his court, which he thought was just like her to leave him and then make him initiate the conversation when she let him come back, but he took it anyway. He'd always been a take-charge kind of guy.

"So…how are you?" he ventured.

"I'm good." Ty nodded, waiting for more.

"That's good." Dean nodded, too. Sighing a little in frustration at this pointless small talk, he pushed a hand through his swiftly dampening hair, "So does that mean you'll come with us?"

Ty smiled slightly, "I missed you, too."

Damn it! He was screwing this up! Dean frowned. He could see what she wanted from him. She wanted an open admission of feelings, she probably wanted some kind of commitment. Hell, she deserved as much, but everything in him balked at the idea. Still, the last thing he wanted was to call it quits with her. He wasn't ready to do that. Why wouldn't she just get in the damn car? They could put this town in the rearview and figure out all the rest later.

"Look, Ty…" he began.

"No, you look, Dean." Ty interrupted him. She could see his growing frustration, his continued confusion, and she mercifully decided to cut him a little break, "I know you're probably still mad about me leaving Bobby's and coming back here. I know you don't get it and that's fine. Just know that I had my reasons and it was for the best, really. I don't know if you can tell, but I think I'm better now."

"Great, so let's go." Dean said, turning back towards the car.

"Go where?" Ty asked, stopping him, "Find a hunt? You know I want to be a hunter, but this is about more than that, Dean. Don't pretend that it isn't. How do you see this playing out, huh?"

Dean kicked at the Impala's tire before meeting Ty's eyes, "I don't know. I could be dead tomorrow for all I know. That's how this job is. You of all people know that. I just want you to be there, okay? What else do you want from me? If you want the flowers and chocolate boy-toy, I'm not that guy."

"I don't want that guy. I don't want you to show up at my doorstep with flowers and take me out to dinner and a movie. I just want you to get to know me." Ty said, crossing her arms resolutely, "And I want to get to know you. I mean, I know who you are, but I don't know about you."

Dean's eyes lit up and Ty quickly cut him off. She knew exactly what that cheeky expression of his meant.

"So help me God, Winchester, if you make some smartass comment right now…"

Dean raised his hands in surrender, "Alright, alright. Like what?"

"Like…" Ty paused and her mind immediately went back to all the things that demon Ty had done that were so unlike her, "Like I don't drink soda or coffee, I can't blow bubbles with bubblegum and besides that I hate bubblegum flavored gum, and I would never, _never_ blow off a hunt to go shopping."

"Yeah, I thought that was a little off." Dean admitted. He moved closer to her, gently pulling Ty into his arms as if he could move her closer without her knowledge if he just did so subtly, "But I do know some things."

"Oh, yeah?" Ty raised her eyebrows skeptically, "Wow me."

"I know your eyes are blue without even looking, which you should know is not usually the case for me. I know you know all kinds of crazy historical shit like Sammy. I know you smell kind of like vanilla for some reason. And I know…you like motorcycles." Dean paused after he recounted that little factoid, frowning as he recalled the incident with the Ducati guy at the bar the last time they'd been in Phoenix.

Ty smiled a little, meeting Dean's eyes briefly before looking away with a coy twist to her lips. His hands were warm on her cool, rain-kissed arms, "I do like motorcycles, but you know, I think the Impala is cooler. Regardless of whether or not you're in it."

Dean barely restrained himself from punching the air as he silently thought, 'Take that, Ducati jerk!'

"Alright," Ty said, drawing his attention back to her, "that's a pretty good start, Winchester. That mean you agree with me?"

"About wanting to get to know you? Yeah! Of course! Jesus, woman, of course I want to know you." that mischievous grin returned to his face as he leaned close to her ear, his warm breath bringing out goosebumps on her skin, "I want to know you inside and out."

Ty shivered and not because she was now thoroughly soaked. She looked up, her eyes pausing briefly on Dean's lips, "Don't call me woman."

Dean chuckled softly before leaning down to kiss her. Ty's heart ached with that kiss. She loved him. She was pretty sure he loved her even if he was too scared of his emotions to tell her. That didn't matter. She wanted to be with him, to make him happy. And she was starting to think that she might actually be capable of doing so.

The last few days had been mostly introspection for Ty. She'd evaluated herself as objectively as possible, weighing the pros and cons of who she was. She still wasn't completely sure why a guy as gorgeous as Dean had even looked at a girl of such mediocre appeal, but for whatever reason, she'd gotten his attention and kept it this long. That had to mean she had something going for her. And physical appearance aside, she knew she was a good person, usually a smart person, with a fairly wicked sense of humor, a quick wit, and a willingness to face just about anything. All in all, she wasn't such a bad catch. So, she should just quit doubting herself, quit wondering when Dean was going to cut her loose and focus on being more productive. She wasn't such a terrible hunter either, just inexperienced. Besides, she was a quick learner. She'd figure it all out in no time with the Winchesters, maybe even manage to help them out. She'd figured all of that out. It had just taken a couple more days to get it to stick, but now…with Dean kissing her it was starting to seem even more like truth.

Dean was oblivious to Ty's thoughts as he kissed her. He was more concerned with the moment, with convincing her to stay with him, and ultimately, he was just enjoying the feeling of it.

The pair slowly pulled apart, Dean looking down at her expectantly.

"Okay, let's go find something bad to kill." Ty said, flashing him that wide smile he loved.

"Finally!" Dean exclaimed, happily grabbing her hand and pulling her towards the car.

Ty let herself be pulled for a moment, let her face show the way she felt inside. She was surprised at how honestly and simply happy she felt. Things weren't exactly perfect. In fact, everything was kind of insane, but she was content for maybe the first time in her life.

"Dean!" Ty finally stopped, pulling her hand free from Dean's, "I need my stuff!"

"Oh, yeah." Dean said, smiling sheepishly, "Hurry up."

Ty nodded and quickly ran back upstairs. Her stuff was actually still mostly packed, so it didn't take her long to gather everything she needed and run back downstairs. Dean was leaning against the bottom of the staircase, waiting for her.

"Those the boots that demon chick bought?" he asked, one eyebrow raised.

Ty paused, "Yeah. She may have been evil, but the boot's are kind of cool."

Dean look surprised for a moment before a thoughtful expression crossed his features. Ty rolled her eyes and moved past him to slide into the backseat of the Impala, tossing her bag down on the seat next to her. Dean joined them in the car and the trio was silent for a second as Dean put the keys in the ignition.

"I know you smell like vanilla." Sam snorted.

He'd tried not to eavesdrop, but it had proved impossible. Besides, he had to make sure his brother didn't go and do something stupid. Dean deserved to be happy even if he and Ty were the only ones who thought so.

Dean whipped around in his seat to punch his brother sharply in the arm while Ty unsuccessfully attempted to stifle a laugh. The engine revved a couple times before Dean steered the Impala back towards the road. He glanced back at Ty once in the rearview mirror before he leaned forward and turned the radio up. Yeah, this was right where she was supposed to be.


End file.
